


Half A Soul

by deanorurising



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Runaways (TV 2017), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Multi, Nico gets possessed (kinda), Will add more tags as we go, also future visits to japan, also very much not just a deanoru fic, and a possible new runaway, not explicit but they do get kinda dirty, some very cute deanoru shit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-05-20 07:22:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 41,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19371991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deanorurising/pseuds/deanorurising
Summary: Nico thinks it might have been her mom, always the one with the least cheerful kind of advice, who once said that the things you're more afraid to lose are the easiest to do so.Ironically, that's the first thing that pops into her mind as she's brought into consciousness, pulled from a dream-like state. The words float into her ears, echo inside her brain. She can imagine Tina, with her beautiful long hair, hovering over her daughters when they were sick.It's the middle of the night, and as her foggy mind awakens from deep slumber, body shuffling unsteadily across a damp alley, the girl can only be sure of two things: the first is that she has the most painful, mind-splitting headache she's ever had. The second is that she's not in control of her body....Or Jonah tries to take Nico, but something doesn't go according to plan.





	1. nico minoru and the night of the brain parasite

**Author's Note:**

> So... this was supposed to be for me to practice some english writing, but I got overtly excited and now it's like, 50k words and counting. 
> 
> I'll admit I went on a bit of a tangent for chapter one but I think it was neccessary to explain where Nico's mind is, so if you like it, just wait for the next ones, it gets sharper the more we go. 
> 
> also forgive any mistakes, i'm not a native speaker, but I try my best, and at least I know the difference between your and you're.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **edited**

The Runaways obviously still missed their old lives every once in a while.

 

Everything had become so wildly different in such a short time that it would be weird if they didn't.

 

They had gone from angsty teenagers that barely spoke to each other anymore, to a family of young superheroes, residing peacefully (at least most of the time) in an abandoned subterranean mega-mansion with their ever-loving dinosaur. From spoiled, rich kids that spent their whole lives inside the walls of a preppy private school, or their pristine, ridiculously expensive luxury homes, to buying clothes in consignment stores and walking into a Walmart for the first time in their lives.

 

Of course it had to be an adjustment. Apart from Gert and Karolina, none of the others knew how to cook, had ever dusted anything or knew how to work a washer. Nico even highly considered just going back home during their first week at the hostel after checking the price of her skin care routine products herself.

 

And Chase went into full-blown sobbing when he realized his parents were probably going to cancel his gym membership, and he'd apparently been _very_ close to getting a supply of protein powder for the whole year.

 

The worst day was probably the first of summer, when everything outside became smoldering hot and, since there was no air-conditioning in the hostel, less than an hour later everyone was sweaty and grumpy.

 

Nico tried to fix it with her staff, but ended up completely freezing the walls and they had to take all the water out in buckets when it started melting. But at least it wasn't so hot anymore. And the raven-haired teenager couldn't stop thinking about how all this work had been for something she used to fix with the press of a button.

 

However, in those moments, when they really missed the millionaire practical way of living, the teens still knew that all those changes were really just the icing on top, nothing more than a smudge on the big picture, if they were being honest. Nico thinks she might describe it as not important, but still big.

 

***

 

Her dad used to tell her that as a kid, when she cried over her favorite dress ripping or toy being broken. The girl always came to him, knowing that her mother was much colder.

 

Yet, even as the more compassionate out of the two, the man would merely look up from his computer screen for a second, sitting comfortably in his office, and let out a semi-exasperated shrug before inviting the sniffling child into his lap.

 

He'd let her cry for a second, explain why she was upset, then, and only then, he'd speak very calmly.

 

"You know what I say about coming into my office about non-important things?"

 

Nico'd take a second before looking him in the eye, but, no matter how hard she tried, she'd always mumble, "B-but, daddy, it is important!"

 

He'd chuckle slightly, good-naturedly, and mess up the top of her hair, "No, it's not, it feels big because you're small, and that's fine, but it's not important, which doesn't mean it can't sometimes feel important."

 

"But, daddy..."

 

"No, Nico," he got stern then, eyebrows slightly furrowed "tell me now, what is important? What did I tell you was important?"

 

Nico always thought she might cry more when he did that, but it never helped, so she swallowed up, every time.

 

"Family, daddy."

 

"Good, what else?"

 

"Me being safe, and Amy being safe."

 

"Good, and what else?"

 

"Being nice to mommy and daddy"

 

"... and what else?"

 

After that, she giggled, recognizing the small game they'd always play when he taught her those rules.

 

"I don't know!" She decided enthusiastically.

 

"Oh, but you do!" Robert reaches for her and tickles the sides of her stomach until the little girl is giggling profusely "you being happy, silly." He explains once they stop, pulling the child in for a hug.

 

"Now go tell the nanny to go buy you another one of those stupid dolls."

 

***

 

So yes, the real changes were way deeper, meant a lot more. Thinking about their homes and luxuries made Nico feel like she was a stompy, loud-mouth five year old again, worried about big, non-important things.

 

Their innocence, families, safety, happiness, or even the sense that they deserved to be happy, had to be the most utterly lost, the most important aspects of it all. And maybe it's just easier to complain about how much they missed silk sheets and expensive chocolate than it is to actually discuss their parent's actions, and what led the teenagers to the hostel in the first place.

 

After all the lies, bloodshed and mind games, sometimes it was too much just to think about it, too complicated. They'd all been hurt, abandoned or nearly killed by their parents before.

 

And specially after discovering that PRIDE developed all those weapons to immobilize and capture their own children like animals.

 

Watching them take Chase and then Karolina...

 

Nico didn't think there was any coming back from this.

 

***

 

The worse is that she would be lying if she said she hadn't held on to hope. At least in the beginning.

 

Buried deep inside, a part of her still hoped their parents weren't that bad. Mostly the part that remembered when Tina taught her and Amy how to do their own hair, seven year old Nico barely able to breathe in excitement at the idea of constructing her very own space buns. Or her father, holding on to the back of her bike until she learned how to ride it, going around the block in circles at least a dozen times before the girl was brave enough to do it on her own.

 

Everytime the brunette let herself wallow over the possibilities, Nico always ended up in the PRIDE's yearly bonfire by the beach, pouting at Stacey until she gave them extra marshmallows, giggling with the other kids over blankets and hot chocolate.

 

Karolina pointing out the constellations... she knew all of their names, and it always impressed Nico. She remembers how the parents would be in their own bubble then, muttering under their breaths, having whispered discussions all whilst stealing worried glances, to see if any of their behavior had been noticed.

 

It had, but kid Nico wasn't all that interested in whatever the adults were doing, she thought they could do no wrong and that everything in their lives was boring and _complicated_. (Tina Minoru's favorite word).

 

And maybe it makes her feel guilty, and dirty, but what wouldn't the brunette do to just go back to that?

 

To being blissfully ignorant and having a few more years before worrying about living without her parents, or having responsibilities? To watching the PRIDE whisper amongst each other and have no idea of (or interest in) what they were saying? She's sure her friends feel like that a lot, specially the boys.

 

But the brunette's not exactly good at discussing her feelings yet, and even then, most times she feels like her life is it's own case entirely.

 

When her friends talk about missing home, no matter if it's the big things or the important things, they sound happy, nostalgic even. When Nico does, it leaves a bad taste in her mouth, like taking a sip of spoilt milk. And Nico feels like, just maybe, she's never had important things to begin with.

 

That's where she sees the difference.

 

No matter how many things Nico lost after running away, big, or important, or both, she feels like they've been taking a lot from her for a long time now, almost like even before that, her memories have already been tinted.

 

The other kids lived peacefully this far, they might have had their fights and problems but it wasn't enough to spoil their memories, to change their perspectives, even if highly warranted. All of their parents are bad, she knows that now, but Nico is still sure none of them could come close to Tina and Robert Minoru.

 

Her parents, though sweet and patient at times, could be any child - honestly any adult's too - worst nightmare, when they wanted to. The pair trained their two daughters on martial arts tirelessly, every single night for hours from very young ages, hitting them with a cane when their stance wasn't good enough, making Nico work on movements until her muscles were so sore she could barely flinch, every time the youngest girl disobeyed in the tiniest of ways.

 

Even now that Nico knows the real reason, that Jonah had a grasp on her family since way before then, she still doesn't understand.

 

It didn't exactly help Amy.

 

And everything got even worse after she died.

 

The heaviest, most terrifying, darkest feeling of emptiness, of powerlessness, taking over her whole body until Nico couldn't think, couldn't speak anymore.

 

For months after that, years even, all Nico could think about was that she should have been smarter and called 911 before yelling for her parents. All she could dream was her sister, blue-faced and cold, crawling from under her bed, clawing at her ankles, asking time and time again with a terrible, dreary voice. _Why didn't you save me, Nico? Why would you leave me, Nico?_

 

A year ago she didn't know why her sister died. The younger teen really thought the girl had committed suicide and didn't even leave a note. The same Amy that kept journals for years, that would leave small letters for Nico if she so much as forgot to wish her a good morning before leaving for school.

 

It's when she thinks of Amy that she is the most guilty, for ever wanting their luxuries back, for missing their old lives.

 

Because finally, _finally_ , with the other kids, Nico finally had the relief, the little taste of freedom, _the answers_ , she didn't even know was so needed.

 

The ones Amy never got to have.

 

All those things made her feel useful for once. Powerful.

 

And after Amy died and her parents decided to stop the training completely, Nico had never felt more powerless.

 

She had been good at fighting, stellar even. At age 12, the small teen could already fight a full grown man. But it didn't mean she liked it. Nico hated it, actually, she liked writing and sewing and reading about magic, none of those things ever made her parents happy.

 

And to child Nico, making them happy was very important. Mostly because they were supposed to love her, right? And if they didn't, then she must be doing something wrong.

 

So she let them control her, let them tell her what was right or wrong to do until it ate away at her personality, destroyed any interests she might have developed.

 

Nico should have been happy, when it stopped. She did go on to develop her own belief system and clothing style, after all.

 

But that was nothing to the feeling of guilt. The heavy, horrible press to the pit of her stomach, when she remembers that she gets all that because she survived.

 

Nico came out of this mess alive. Amy didn't.

 

She got to have all the running away, the rebelling, the fighting PRIDE with their own weapons, the being _in love_.

 

Amy never even got to have a reality with no ninjitsu classes.

 

The damn least she could do for her sister is be grateful.

 

So yeah, Nico might miss the silky sheets, the expensive food, the nice smelling face products; she might fantasize about a reality where they were still ignorant to the real purpose of PRIDE.

 

But it's nothing compared to the life they've built in the hostel.

 

And Nico loves the way that it feels like she's surrounded by important things, by important people, even if sometimes it's hard to show. She appreciates that they don't try to suppress or change her there; on the contrary, the other teens embrace her traits, and appreciate them for what they are.

 

It's one of those feeling you can't help but want to keep close to your heart forever and never let go.

 

Yet, Nico thinks it might have been her mom, always the one with the least cheerful kind of advice, who once said that the things you're more afraid to lose are the easiest to do so.

 

It's the first thing that pops into her mind as she's brought into consciousness, pulled from a dream-like state. It floats into her ears, echoes inside her brain, she can imagine Tina, with her beautiful long hair, hovering over her daughters when they were sick.

 

***

 

It's the middle of the night, and as her foggy mind awakens from deep slumber, body shuffling unsteadily across a damp alley, the girl can only be sure of two things: the first is that she has the most painful, mind-splitting headache she's ever had. The second is that she's not in control of her body.

 

It feels familiar, like it's been happening for a while, and now Nico's sure it actually has, that whoever it is (a person, an entity, a demon, super-villain...), has been in her brain for an indefinite amount of time, and the thought alone is enough to terrify her to the bone.

 

The brunette can still see through her own eyes, feel the telltale goosebumps of a cool breeze against her skin, the cold metal of the staff pressed into her palm. But apart from that, there is nothing, she can't move or talk, her arms and legs aren't there, nothing is.

 

Inside, Nico can feel what could only be described as _pressure_ , tightening around her soul, her very being, it suffocates her, like whatever this creature is, it's twisting itself into her very core and sucking the energy out of it. Her head hurts, even if she's not sure it's her head, more like her conscience, or whatever other names one might have to one's very thoughts.

 

She feels like she might want her mom. Anger be damned but she really wants some Tylenol and a bag of frozen peas wrapped in silky cloth.

 

Nico can sense the creature in there with her, sharing her skull, it's thoughts are just as chaotic and unorganized as hers, something about dark magic, and some sort of trap, and how much it hates the Californian heat. Above all, the asian girl can feel that the entity is nervous, apprehensive even, probably because it can feel the same sort of pain she's under (the agonizing, torturous kind of pain).

 

It's hands - _her_ hands - are trembling wildly and when they come into her line of vision, Nico can see dark veins like tiny, black tunnels, that glow slightly in the smallest lightning-like lines of blueish silver light protruding from underneath, swirling around her fingers and up her wrists in hooks and semi-circles, almost like drawings, but too imperfect to be man made.

 

"No, no... it can't be..." the creature mumbles, it's still Nico's voice, but definitely rougher, heavier, nothing like anything the girl can do, even if she purposely tried.

 

Nico knows where they're going now, as her heavy feet tumble out of the dark alley into a sidewalk, it's the Stein family's street, dimly lit and silent. The whole neighborhood seems deserted, quiet like the world only gets in the later hours of the night.

 

And as the teenager's body limps into the street, her vision goes white, searing pain ripping into her skull in a million bolts of electricity until she thinks someone might have stabbed her brain from behind. The creature feels it too, now it's obvious that it does, it screams in her place, bending over to grasp at the sides of Nico's head.

 

The Stein's house is straight ahead, hovering over the well-manicured garden in all it's majestic pristineness, presumably kept by an expensive landscaping business. They don't get a lot further though, in the midst of all the pain, Nico's body staggers and falls to the concrete in agony.

 

Nico doesn't really know what is happening, or how she got to this point, but she's pretty sure she's about to die.

 

The creature stands with the help of the staff, using it as a substitute cane, her knees are weak and her head is throbbing but the entity goes on, shuffling across the street in a zombie-like limp until they are standing at Chase's doorstep.

 

Nico watches one of her hands rise, staff securely held in a fist. A spell is cast but the door doesn't open under the artifact's influence.

 

Her pain becomes even worse then, unrelentless, Nico can feel the burn of whatever the veins in her hands are, spreading up her forearm rapidly in the same swirls and spirals, the same roadmap of tiny, circular roads, wiggling around each other.

 

The alien shoves the door with her elbow, they shuffle across the dark hallway to the garage, where she's sure the heavy baby blue door is kilometers away. Once the creature reaches it, her body goes tumbling down the short three steps into the concrete of Victor Stein's garage, staff escaping her hand and sliding across the floor in a sharp _clank_.

 

It all hurts, her blood hurts like fire coursing through her veins, but even that takes a backseat to the pressure, the suffocating of her very existence, that feeling of this entity's grip around her, twisting her like a wet rag until all the water is out. It keeps pushing, she can feel it making it worse.

 

"Father!" The entity screams. When her eyes rise from the floor, the teenager notices Victor's cars are nowhere to be seen. Instead, there's three huge glass cylinders, as tall as the ceiling, transparent and seemingly empty besides the few weird, glowing characters and the fact there's a person inside each. Nico (or whatever is inside of her) goes over each of them with her eyes. Janet Stein, in her pencil skirt and windswept hair.

 

Chase, wearing a fucking _polo_ shirt. Nico almost wants to kick herself when her first thought is that Gert would be _so mad_ if she could see him.

 

And last, looking the most peaceful she has seen her in months, yet still just as Nico remembers her from a few hours ago, is Karolina.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I have always had a little bit of a problem with this chapter and couldn't find ways of making it more cohesive, but I think it's finally perfect. 
> 
> I'm sorry to all who've decided to come back and read the new one but I hope you can see the improvement! 
> 
> Love you all 
> 
> -clara


	2. ways to unmeet The In-laws

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to post two chapters, so that people can get a grip around the story, but the updates will probably be every thursday or friday. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy it.

 

Nico can fight back, somehow she knows she can, in the midst of all the pain, the girl forces herself to expand what feels as existence, as her soul, press back at the alien just as strongly. It's odd, as someone used to fighting with her feet and hands and swords, finding a way of wrangling the intruder inside her own mind puzzles Nico, but she does it, she uses her thoughts as weapons, happy ones, like Karolina smiling at her from across the hostel's dining room, or throwing giant dog toys for Old Lace over and over in the atrium, the dinosaur only becoming more excited every time, or Amy and her, playing tennis during summer break, and how good her sister was. She piles them on top of each other when it's obvious that it affects the creature. 

 

It screams, writhes in agony the more she does it, but it's presence is unrelenting, like they're both pulling an elastic band towards opposite directions, getting thrown back together when the tension breaks. It hurts, even more than before, but it's a different pain, tinted with the tiniest bit of freedom, like the creature's metaphorical hands got just a little looser around her metaphorical neck. 

 

If the brunette had any control of herself, she'd have panicked at how dead Karolina looks, the more still Nico has ever seen her even when she's asleep. It takes her back to Amy just lying there, in bed, not breathing, and how that had to be the most still she had ever seen Amy as well. The memory seems to affect the creature, as it heaves the slightest bit more. So she continues, thinking of her mom saying she wasn't her daughter anymore, of the police officers, taking their parent's money without a second thought, of Karolina in that tube. 

 

The more she does it, the more it hurts, but she knows it hurts for whatever has her under their control as well, so it's worth it. 

 

A few feet away from her line of sight, Victor's office is trashed, glass doors wide open; papers, random electronics and computer parts, thrown dismissively over random pieces of furniture. The box, the one she saw her parents put Destiny in months ago, has been brought to stand before the cylinders, and by it, three people stand. They're her mom, Stacey and Victor, but it's not _them_ , they're trapped just like she is, Nico knows because her own entity knows, it _recognizes_ them. 

 

Victor is the first to turn around and face the writhing, painful mess of limbs, he chuckles lightly and advances toward them. Nico takes the opportunity to evoke more memories, mixing them up this time, some make her angry, some make her happy, some make her sad. As a response, Nico can feel it breaking now, like the elastic band is starting to lose it's capability of returning to the same spot, after being stretched. 

 

"Hello, son" Victor sounds like Jonah, which, of course he does, she should have known, really should have, "you're looking splendid" the teen can feel the daggers being sent from her eyes at the man, who merely smiles back. 

 

"There's something... wrong with... this... human..." words are spat out in breathless mumbles, the throbbing making Nico's body so weak she can barely breathe. Her ears start bleeding, cold trails of bloody tears traveling down her neck. 

 

"It's alright" Stacey pitches in, she turns and saunters elegantly across the garage "we needed someone to deliver us the ozoku, figured it might be hard to get her here on her own" Stacey shrugs, like it should have been obvious, which apparently it isn't because Nico can feel the surprise in the creature, how appalled it is even through all that's happening inside her own head. 

 

"It... it can't be... ozoku is the yellow eyed one, I've seen what she can do, there's no way..." while it mumbles, Tina crosses the garage quickly, positioning herself right in front of Nico in seconds. Her hands grab the girl's shoulders and pull her up forcefully, holding on to her wrists in order to keep her standing. Her skin hurts when it touches Nico, burns her, and the creature wails in response. 

 

"You fool" Tina spits out the words like knives "the mutant is a result of exposure to majesdanian rocks, nothing more" her hands clutch on to the sides of Nico's head and bring her forward, earning a small whimper from the creature. They're so close the teenager can see each individual lash above her mother's piercing brown eyes. They look empty in a crazy way, like she's in the middle of a mental breakdown. 

 

" _This_ one, though... I can feel her _in_ there, just looking out at us..." Tina chuckles. 

 

"If she... if she's the ozoku, then that means..." the creature (apparently Karolina's brother, which, weird) is fearful, Nico would have noticed even if it hadn't been shoved inside her skull. 

 

"Her blood will purge you" Stacey clarifies from where she stands behind Tina, arms crossed over her chest. The teenager barely has time to process what she said before her own alien speaks. 

 

"Why would you betray me like that, grandmother?" It cries at Stacey at the same time that Tina let's her body go, which makes it so the creature stammers, taking a couple of steps back, but doesn't fall.

 

"Don't worry, my pet" Stacey's hand finds it's way to the shorter girl's cheek. "We have others, can't you see? And we need her... wand, if we're going to leave" She says, hand gesturing nonchalantly to the tubes behind them.

 

"I wouldn't pick the old one" Jonah chimes in, none of them seemingly worried by their companion's suffering "and Karolina is your sister, even if quite the petulant one, so you can have the boy." 

 

The brunette fights harder with that, even if she wants to stop, to have the tiniest moment of relief, she can't, not when she can feel the band about to break with each memory, each layer of emotion, Nico can feel her mind expanding, getting bigger inside herself, wrangling through the restraint that the alien had over her, and pulling apart from it. Something must be changing because there are bloody tears under her eyelashes and her ears are ringing worse than before, but she can't stop, not now.  

 

"You need to do it fast" he moans as their shared agony increases, multiplies, every second Nico spends fighting it "She's purging me" 

 

"Sit." There's a chair behind her knees, metal arm restraints visible from the corner of her eye. Someone whisks the staff away from the floor.

The anger is enough for Nico to push it the harder that she can, as hard as her body allows when all she can think of doing is disintegrating. 

 

For a second, the band is so weak Nico can feel herself in control, but before even thinking about summoning the staff, Stacey and Tina grab her arms and make her sit, Jonah clasping the handcuffs around her darkening wrists, the pitch black veins now spreading to her neck, her shoulder blades, she can feel their burn under her skin along with the band coming back, the creature taking control again, sinking around her soul like a grape vine.

 

"That's not how it's gonna go, little witch" Jonah decides, lowering himself to her line of vision "you, my daughter and those pesky little friends of yours made my life _very_ difficult..." the man chuckles like he just told the funniest joke "it's a shame, really, that you couldn't tap into all that wasted potential... couldn't see what you and Karolina can really do..." another tiny laughter, this time a lot less humorous “you thought I'd let you go? And then what? Expect the meddlers to not be at my door in just a few days?" 

 

"She doesn't understand" the alien that occupies Nico's body interrupts. 

 

"Of course she doesn't" Jonah decides, standing straighter again "it's a pity she'll die without getting to know her family" 

 

"Just do it already! She's killing me!" Karolina’s brother screams. Jonah purses his lips together in anger as something flashes behind his eyes, something irate and irrational. 

 

"Get the boy and Karolina awake" he orders, both women frowning in confusion. 

 

"But, son... why would we need Karolina? I thought we..." Tina tries but gets interrupted. 

 

"You see, this is going to require quite a lot of energy, I haven't actually tried changing bodies this way but my son cannot do it organically this time, so we're just going to... borrow some of his sister's" Jonah explains, coming to stand right in front of Tina. 

 

"That's incredibly painful, you can't..." 

 

"I can't what?" He snaps at the shorter woman "teach my ungrateful daughter a lesson? Huh? She has done nothing but betray her people since we've met again, if we're taking her with us, she needs to understand what happens to things she loves more than the Gibborim." 

 

"But you can't... she'll..." Tina stammers, but Stacey is already pressing the necessary buttons and two of the tanks blink red three times before a smoky gas is being sprayed into them from emitters on the ceiling. 

 

Both Karolina and Chase fall to their knees inside the restraining compartment, gasping for air through the thick smoke. Nico doesn't even need memories this time, everything that she feels is enough to fuel the ever expanding widening of her soul until the girl can feel the restraints becoming weaker again. 

 

It screams in her voice, the dark veins taking over her skin, spreading up her neck, into the face. Karolina can see her now, she raises her eyes to meet Nico's, the smaller girl wonders if she notices, if she knows it's her alien brother who's in control. 

 

"What did you do to her?!" The blonde asks her father angrily, hitting the glass repeatedly to catch his attention. The sound of her voice makes Nico press harder, now entering a stage where they're fighting telepathically against each other so strongly that all it can do is shout, _yell_ , at the top of Nico's lungs. 

 

"I did nothing to her, dear daughter" Jonah says nonchalantly, at the same time Stacey and Tina work on opening Chase's tube "She's doing it herself." 

 

"What is happening?" Chase asks, confused, as his tank completely recoils into the ceiling and the two women approach "Mrs. Minoru, Mrs. Yorkes... I... please don't come closer, I'll hurt you..." the aliens that have taken over their bodies chuckle at the same time, they grab his arms, one on each side, steady even as he tries to fight them "Whoa! Why are you... how are you so strong?" 

 

"It's not them, Chase, they're being controlled" Karolina explains, eyes focused solely on Nico as she frowns in anger, before changing to face Jonah, who seems slightly amused by the situation "we don't even know if they're in there" 

 

"Oh, she's in here alright" the creature taunts Karolina, and Nico gives it a specially hard push, an easy feat when she's so angry and only getting angrier. The next time it opens her mouth, it's voice is breathless, weak, making it obvious that the wails are fighting to come out "My pain is hers. I can _feel_ her in here, stuck like a little black mouse..." it stops for a second, and when her mouth opens again, the thing is using her voice. 

 

"Karolina, it hurts!" The thing wails "please save me, Karolina, I can't do it, please help me!"

 

“Stop that!” the blonde yells back, now very clearly furious.

 

“Stop what, little sister? I'm just having a good time...” he chuckles, voice now different from Nico's again “She'll be dead in a couple of hours anyway”

 

“Why are you doing this?”

 

He scoffs “Does it matter? Is your brain really so corrupted by human nature that you can't see they're all temporary? You're pathetic, a member of majesdanian royalty crying for humans… or should I say demons?”

 

“W-what do you mean?” Jonah is by the control panel now, all the aliens seeming to have decided to ignore the discussion taking place, he lets his hands fly gracefully across the keyboard, typing out codes that stretch across the screen in colorful characters.

 

“Awwn...” the alien mocks, pouting back at the blonde “so you really thought she could hone dark dimension magic by sheer luck? Wow, humans really are dumb!”

 

The thing laughs in a nearly maniacal way right after, and Nico again goes harder, feeling the restraints weaker, almost ready to break at any minute. It pants and screams louder as well, more devilish and guttural. It's a weird feeling, on the cusp of feeling free again, but all that Nico can do is take back an inch at a time, a little bit of her brain every second. 

 

"It has to be done now" Stacey says from where they stand, still holding onto Chase and barely seeming phased by the teenager's fighting against their grasp "he won't be able to take it for long." 

 

"Put Chase in the box" Jonah orders not taking his eyes away from the screen, both Nico and Karolina starting to scream at the same time, a strange, chaotic cacophony of voices. Karolina begging at her dad, Nico, fighting with everything she's ever felt in her life, making it scream in their shared agony. Because the pain is _nothing_ , she thinks, the pain is nothing compared to how she'll feel if she lets them hurt her friends. 

 

Tina opens the box. Chase is looking directly at her. She can see the staff, under the blood glued to her eyelashes, painting her face in red tears. Jonah has went to the control panel of the tubes, typing carelessly on the keyboard what she knows has something to do with taking Karolina's energy. Amongst all the chaos, something crosses Karolina's face, something like surprise and understanding, and suddenly she's violently punching the glass. 

 

"Nico! Nico, please fight it!" The blonde begs, and Nico does, she uses her girlfriend's words and how they make her feel. The creature is so weak now she can sense her own body just a breath away from being under her control again "Kick him out of your brain, Nico! Come on, kick it out! You can do it!" 

 

The screams are so high that the Japanese girl considers if she might become deaf after all this. But she can't stop, she can't, not when they're wrestling Chase, trying to get him inside the box, the same box that killed Destiny and fourteen others. 

 

"Stop it, Karolina!" Jonah screams from where he is, and two structures are lowered into his daughter's tube, they're metal with red wires swirling all around it, they swirl down, instantly circling around Karolina's wrists as she bats at them.

 

“What is this?” the wires twist further into her arm, they slither up like red snakes “Dad?! What are you doing?” Jonah merely smiles back, and as the technological vines tighten, going up her shoulders into her neck, Karolina suddenly starts glowing, but she seems almost surprised by it “What...”

 

Before the blonde can speak any further, in a tiny explosion of sparks, her colorful light boosts into the wires and she screams, falls into one knee, panting like she's just been shocked by 500 watts of energy. The cables turn into glowing wires, sizzling with energy as it flows to the top of the tube and into the ceiling. Stacey, Tina and Victor turn to stare at the phenomenon, mesmerized as their murder box comes to life in white light.

 

That's the moment Nico picks for going in further, the hardest she's tried all night, and that seems to warrant a specifically strong reaction. As the alien recoils into itself and cries louder, all turn to look at her, and she can feel her eyes, her face turning the purple-ish black that it always does when the staff takes over, except this time the staff is a room away and she has no way of getting it. Karolina notices, in the middle of her own pain, but seems to grow more determined when she sees the aliens's reactions, they look surprised, confused even.

 

"You're doing so well, Nico! You're gonna make it," her voice is tortured, barely leaving  her throat, and it's obvious that the blonde is in so much pain she can barely breathe, by the way her chest heaves with every word, sucking the air in desperately, "you're so brave, come on, you have the best mind I know, you can do it!" The blonde is shouting over her own pants, voice pained and barely feasible over Nico's own, the brunette still covered in blood, rolling down from her eyes and nose, damping up her white shirt to the point of no return. 

 

"Karolina, stop it! She's killing your brother!" 

 

"You have me in a box! And you're draining me!" Karolina shouts back, and then hisses when the wires pull her energy particularly hard.

 

The air around Nico turns warm, it swirls around her legs, spreading around her whole body until no one can touch her. Jonah tries and gets blown back across the room. Karolina smiles proudly, she turns to face her girlfriend again. 

 

"It's too late! They're too unstable!" Stacey screams from where they're still holding Chase. 

 

"Nico, you're doing so well!" Karolina continues, and the brunette has no idea how she can still hear it, over the high-pitched wind and her own screams. 

 

With one last mind-numbing scream, the band breaks and the pain ceases with an explosion of light so bright it must have lit up the whole neighborhood. Then it ceases and Nico is alone in her mind again. Her vision is foggy and she feels like she could sleep for days, it all still hurts but more dull, barely there. The staff flies across the room, almost hitting Stacey on the head, until it reaches her hand. She casts a spell on her restraints that break open and then Nico rises, everyone staring at her in surprise except for Jonah, who seems to be fuming. 

 

He stomps toward her, already starting to glow, along with Tina and Stacey.

 

"Away!" It's the first thing she can think to cast, and all three parents are violently thrown against the wall like ragdolls. Her brain gets foggier with the use of magic and right after the spell takes place, Nico can feel her mind shutting down, turning off like a light switch. 

 

The last thing the teenager hears before everything goes black is the deafening high-pitched sound of Victor's garage door getting ripped out of the wall.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About the Minoru fighting situation, I always thought they must have taught them from very young for Nico to know so much, besides the scene in 2x02, I think, when Robert doesn't even question Nico just grabbing the fricking katana to go fight her mom like it's just a monday thing, like anyone else would've been "why the hell are you taking a sword to go talk to your mom", but for them it seems normal. I'm gonna go really deep into that from Nico's perspective the next few chapters. 
> 
> Hope you liked it! Once again, come talk to me on tumblr, at dontmakemepick2


	3. a kryptonian's helping hand and escaping from tube prison

  
The moment Molly ripped the Stein’s garage door from it’s hinges, Karolina has to cover her already offended ears. She never heard anything even close to the high-pitched, irritating screech of the strong pieces of metal that had previously held the door in place, getting bent in half and snapped right off the wall. Molly tosses the offending object to the grass behind herself carelessly, where it falls in a twisted carcass of iron and wood with a strong _thud_.

  
Once the sound stops ringing into her ears, the blonde finally lifts her eyes to realize that her friend is not alone. There are four others, two that Karolina knows (Xavin and Alex, the boy having both his hands stuffed into the fistigons), and the other two, she hasn’t met.  
They’re both women. One, a short-haired redhead, carrying a very large, obviously modified gun, and the other, a blonde in a supersuit, red cape billowing behind her back. Karolina knows who the second one is, just like any young person who lives in the U.S., but she still has to take a long second look, to make sure it really is the National City superhero.

  
Inside the garage, everyone is still. Nico is unconscious, laying with her stomach up, eyes still dark in those same circles of cracked black and purple. Everywhere Karolina looks, the veins are still there, countless connected vines that had previously contained speckles of blue, now purely ashy gray. Karolina thought they’d be gone after the screaming stopped but they only seemed to have seeped further.

  
Jonah stands between them, _fuming_ , face red to the point it reminded her of Sunday morning cartoons, she half-expects steam to come out of his ears like a locomotive. A few feet away from him, by the murder box, Stacey and Tina hold on to Chase, with their eyes wide in surprise. The boy uses that momentary distraction, and elbows both of them in the stomach, which doesn’t seem to hurt, but does give him enough leverage to break free and roll away right as Molly and the others advance inside.

  
“Karolina, look, we have Supergirl!” the fourteen year old exclaims happily, walking to the tubes where the blonde is still imprisoned.

  
Alex comes running by her side, taking one of the fistigons off, “Chase! Catch!”, he warns, before tossing the weapon across the room. Chase stuffs his hand into it just as Stacey appears right behind his back.

  
“Behind you!” Alex says, and as the other boy turns around to look, they both blast the woman with their respective gloves, hurling her body into one of the further walls, warranting pieces of concrete and paint to drizzle from the ceiling like deformed raindrops.

  
“Molly, help me get out! Go for the panel!” Karolina yells, watching worriedly as a deep crack expands across the ceiling, spreading into a hundred different ones. Supergirl comes flying in just then, blasting Jonah with freeze-breath.

  
“I’m coming, Karo!” the curly-haired teen goes to the side panel and starts hammering on buttons randomly, she presses a few and the cables that swirled around the blonde’s arms recoil into the ceiling swiftly. She flexes her fingers and rubs her wrists to help the blood rush down, wincing when it hurts more than expected.

  
The red-haired, military-clad woman passes by quickly, she goes for a shot at Tina, but the alien glows and blasts her instead. Xavin comes in as Molly continues to go crazy on the keys, tube having started blinking in red.  
There is now a full-on battle going on deeper into the garage. Stacey, Tina and Victor flank each other, shoulder to shoulder, using their lights to shield away from the other's assault.

Supergirl tries to heat-vision them twice before she sees the way they keep throwing looks at the light box and decides to go for it. As soon as she does, Victor breaks their shield and flies face first into the hero’s stomach, using his lights to send them hurtling out of the hole where the garage door had previously been.

  
“Molly, come on!” Karolina hits the glass to get the girl’s attention.

  
“AARGH, I don’t know!” Molly complains, frustrated.

  
“Just break it, Molly!” the blonde decides, and without an ounce of hesitation, Molly turns, eyes glowing, and round-house kicks the glass that kept her friend prisoner, turning it into a million tiny pieces that pile onto the floor by their feet. Karolina feels a cut in her forehead, and then her arm, thick drops of blood, warm against the skin of her wrist, dripping down to tint the yellowish concrete floors.

  
But there is no time to take her wounds into account, because Chase is being thrown through his ruined garage door, to the pristinely cut grass outside, Stacey marching furiously right after. Xavin is fighting Tina, a few feet away from the door, and Alex runs after the other boy who has just been hurtled across the air, still carrying one of the fistigons.

  
The whole thing is chaos, but it almost doesn’t compute. The blonde is too focused on the tiny body, even smaller on the floor of this huge garage, amongst all the chaos. Karolina advances quickly from the tube, she stammers for Nico, heart nearly stopping when, even from up-close, the girl doesn’t look like she’s breathing, her face pale and nearly blueish as the taller teenager kneels by her side.

  
A deafening explosion resounds across the garage and Karolina’s hands instinctively fly to protect her eardrums that end up violently popping anyway.

  
As the redhead that came with Supergirl kicks Tina away from Xavin, into one of Victor’s glass walls, scattering it into thousands of tiny pieces, Karolina recoils further into Nico, ears ringing loudly over the violent sounds of combat. Someone screams her name, or something that sounds like it, but she can barely hear it, like the voices are coming from the end of a long tunnel.

  
Nico is quiet, so quiet that Karolina is afraid to touch her. Frank always taught her as a child that if she saw someone pass out or get badly hurt, she should never move them, only call 911 and let them help. It’s stupid because Nico might have passed out, but she didn’t get hurt, she wasn’t in a car accident or anything of the sorts, in fact, she’d been yelling in pain just a second before. And maybe it’s that that makes Karolina scared, but all she knows is that her hand stills, mid-air before coming too close.

  
Something else explodes, this time outside, and the blonde jerks awake from her brief consideration on calling 911, even if they wouldn’t have had anyway of explaining the sinewy marks that cover the girl’s whole body. So Karolina reaches a second time, deciding to at least take her out of the garage, away from the chaotic fighting.

  
She’s stopped by an explosion of bright light, so clear and strong that the blonde can’t look at it directly for a few seconds.

  
They come from her palms, sizable, shimmering balls of energy, emitting only the quietest of hums, more like a vibration. Her blue eyes fall to Nico’s face, the smaller teen’s breathing so weak, it’s barely noticeable, and she instantly knows what to do, like some sort of impulse, a tribal instinct bigger than herself, Karolina nearly lunges forward to take Nico in her arms.

  
As soon as their skin touches and she pulls her unconscious girlfriend into a tight embrace, the light expands, glows around and beyond them, so incredibly strong that Karolina swiftly protects the unconscious girl’s eyes without thinking. With it, something explodes, louder than the others before, but also more dull, and Karolina can hear pieces of the ceiling giving out, raining all around her in concrete and dust and rocks.

  
When the light fades away behind her eyelids, however, everything is suddenly very silent, so silent that the blonde thinks she might’ve gone deaf.

  
Her eyes fall open, and she lets out a large sigh of relief. Nico is no longer sickeningly pale, neither is her skin tainted by the dark markings, all signs of the extraterrestrial possession gone like they’d never been there in the first place. When the blonde looks up from her girlfriend’s peaceful expression, however, she’s greeted with an even more destroyed garage.

  
Multicolored wires dangle from large holes in the ceiling and the holes are more like gaping craters, exposing the concrete guts of the house. The larger of them is situated right above the two girls, and looks through to the posh living room, now with it’s pristine waxed wooden floors crooked and bent around the crater like rotten teeth, the expensive, coppery orange couch teetering dangerously over the edge.

  
A thick fog of dust floats around them, adhering to every surface due to the thick sprays of water that drip violently from a blown pipe somewhere. She can only hear it, as, from where they sit, absolutely surrounded by debris, - giant chips of concrete, toppled over mounds of glass, iron beams, twisted in pretzel-like shapes, clusters of sparks, flying from the wires over their heads like a rain of fire, - not a lot can be seen from beyond the garage.

  
Molly and Xavin are close by, standing by the tubes. Alex is close also, sneakers nearly sinking into a pile of broken down concrete. All three of them are wide-eyed and speechless, staring at all the destruction for long seconds before Karolina coughs out a bit of the dust that had settled into her lungs and speaks.

  
“Did-Did I break all this?” she asks, her voice still rugged and odd, and when her eyes go to Nico again, she realizes the painful gash on her wrist is no longer there. The blonde pats nimbly at her own forehead, nothing there as well.

  
“My… my face was hurt.” Molly mumbles from where she stands, Karolina was also sure the fourteen year old carried a large cut on her upper arm.

  
“Oh that's just your healing powers, I wondered if they'd take long.” Xavin explains, nonchalantly, as if they were talking about the color of the sky, and the blonde's eyes go wide.

  
“My… _what_ now?”

  
“It's not important, not now, at least” the shapeshifter gestures loosely with one hand, undoubtedly a learned behavior, probably from Leslie, “Your father used it as a distraction to break through the ceiling and escape.”

  
“Well that's… not good.” Karolina sighs, tiredly, suddenly feeling very drained.

  
“How is Nico?” Alex asks, distancing from the previous subject, as he advances worryingly towards the others.

  
“She's good now, I think… we're good.” the blonde decides, more to herself than the boy. She's about to ask more, still confused as to what exactly just happened, and just how much Xavin knows.

  
Before she can, however, Supergirl comes flying in from above the rubble, scanning the garage for loose threats. Her cape billows violently behind her back, and the blown pipes that still sprayed somewhere across the room seemed to have dampened the woman's sandy blonde hair.

  
“Is everyone alright?” she comes to ask, hovering over the teenagers with a deep frown between her eyebrows.

  
They all nod enthusiastically, and after that, Supergirl turns to Karolina fully. She seems worried, and it makes the younger blonde's breathing hitch in her throat.

  
“Let me take her outside,” the heroine gestures to Nico’s unconscious body “we don't know how stable this place is, right now.”

  
Karolina's first instinct is to say no, to forbid anyone from touching Nico for the next ten years. Her screams still echo inside the blonde's brain, fresh like open wounds, being reverberated onto the walls and ceiling of this dark garage only minutes ago.

  
They all look at her, then, and the blonde knows that without her girlfriend's infallible judge of character or Gert's priceless pragmatic predictions of their actions, the whole group is a little lost on who to trust.

  
Because of that, Karolina's decision on whether or not to let her take Nico would probably go a long way in their brains. They know she wouldn't put the small teen in danger, but Karolina questions if they know that she has no idea what to do as well as them. The blonde’s arms tighten around the smaller girl's shoulders at first, unsure, but then she thinks of what Nico would have liked her to do.

  
Her girlfriend is a grade-A pessimist, but she is an even better realist. She'd probably point out that Supergirl helped them, that she got them at probably the most vulnerable time and fought Jonah for them. Karolina can almost hear her voice now, warm and deep, reprimanding them for being paranoid. It doesn't make letting go of her any easier.

  
“I'll give her to your friend outside, you don't have to worry.” Supergirl bobs her head slightly, to the place where the garage door had been ripped from the wall.

  
Only then, Karolina sees Chase, standing gingerly at the enormous hole in the concrete. The boy nods weakly when their eyes meet, and that solidifies the blonde's decision.

  
Supergirl hovers down and cradles Nico's body like she’s a baby, barely phased by the teen's weight as she rises. Karolina then gets up from her place on the floor; her knees hurt from the glass and ashy, very thin concrete dust, that covers every recognizable surface, along with her hair and skin. As the blonde comes to her feet, it topples off of her like clouds of smoke, warranting a small coughing fit.

  
Karolina, Alex and Xavin shuffle outside right behind Molly, patting away at their clothing to release most of the dust whilst the fourteen year old lifts big pieces of concrete triumphantly, only to settle them a few feet away from the group's path, making it easier for them to reach the outside, where the full moon rules from amongst fat, twinkling stars. The grass glimmers from the light, expanding for several feet to the right of the ruined garage door, and to the left and front, the orangish, tiled concrete of the driveway, hard and untouched under their feet.

  
“Where is Gert?” that's the first thing Chase asks when they reach the door. Behind him, Supergirl settles Nico on top of a small hill of grass, and turns right after to speak with the woman she had brought, who seems very annoyed as she clutches her big gun.

  
“We thought she might be here with you.” Alex clarifies, “apparently not, which means someone else took her, when we were running from the drones.”

  
“What do you mean, _took_ her?” Chase’s eyes go slightly wider.

  
“It was Dale.” Molly explains, nonchalantly, she crosses her arms across a pink shirt filled with rainbows. “He and Stacey were the last ones left in that shopping mall.”

  
“She's lucky, then.” Xavin observes, and all four of the other teenagers turn to them at once, “What? Would you rather she be locked in one of those tubes and thought of as potential food or is it best that her paternal parent has her?”

  
At that, the other kids let out a small breath, because it does seem better, specially when they glance, even very quickly, at what's left of the luxurious garage.

  
“But then how… how are we going to find her? Do any of you know where he took her?!” Chase questions, fingers rubbing across his cheeks and forehead frantically. His hair is wild, pupils blown with adrenaline, and the white, sleeveless tank he wears is drenching in sweat, “Are we sure it was really Dale? Shouldn't I go back in there and look? What if she's in there and we just didn't see, I can…”

  
Karolina understands the sentiment, she really does, of worrying about the safety of someone you love, but she also doesn't want her friend walking into what is now a very real safety hazard, so the blonde grabs onto his arm and pulls the boy away from where he'd already positioned himself to walk back to the garage.

  
“She's not in there, Chase.” Karolina explains, eyebrows pressed together in worry, “we would've known, they have no other place to put them but the garage, and there's Old La…”

  
“No, you don't understand, my dad has secret doors everywhere! There’s even one on the ceiling! She could be in any of those things and we'd never…”

  
“Supergirl didn't see her, she has X-Ray vision,” Xavin speaks, having been passively observing the situation for a few minutes.

  
Karolina watches Chase ball up his hands into fists so tight that his knuckles turn white. His whole face is bright red for a second, eyes closed as if he's trying not to ram a desk into a wall after slamming his toe into it's leg. She gets ready to intercept a fight between her friend and the xartanian, but then the boy simply looks up, with so much anger in his brown eyes that, hadn't Karolina known him from the time he was just a scrawny seven year old, she'd have been scared.

  
“And you all trust her? Just like that?” his tone is snarky, the kind the others are sure Chase has only used maybe once before in his life.

  
Alex shoots the other boy an incredulous look, even if sagged by tiredness, “She's supergirl! What the hell do you expect us to do, Stein?! We need help!”

  
“We've always needed help, that doesn't mean we're just gonna take it from superpowered government lackeys!” Karolina notices Supergirl's neck snapping in their direction at that, even if she's standing on the other side of the Stein's extensive garden, barely visible with how dark the whole thing is, illuminated only by the full moon, and Karolina is sure the older woman can hear everything they say, “Goddamn it! Who even called her in the first place?!” Chase asks, now angrily fisting whole bunches of his own brown hair.

  
“I did.” Xavin finally speaks from where they stand silently, a few feet away, “I know the kryptonian’s soul and it is not corrupted by the Magistrate, that was the whole reason why I approached her a month ago, when I was freed from the ship, I…”

  
“So… you’ve known her for a whole month? And how… what do you mean by _knowing her soul_?” Molly intercepts the conversation. She'd been the most excited about a possible alliance with the National City hero, both because she'd read about the woman for her entire childhood, and because she always felt someone like Supergirl would understand her, understand her powers, she does also have super-strength after all.

“We have different names for it, but yeah. When I was freed from the ship, for the first time in Millennia, my essence ended up in the Itacoma desert, right in between Los Angeles and National City, and her power called me.” Xavin explains, almost too calmly for the atmosphere of the situation at hand, “I recognized kryptonian blood and decided to investigate. I read her intentions, her thoughts, because I had to make sure she was good, _before_ I even made contact. And she _is_ , I've actually never met anyone that cares so much about the safety of strangers in my long, long life. Not on Xartan, Krypton or Earth”

  
With that, they all turn to look at Chase, who still massages his own forehead worryingly, but seems at least the slightest bit accepting of Xavin's explanation.

  
“Alright, I believe in you,” he assures, as Alex sinks heavily into a sitting position, over the cold hard concrete, “but we can't let them know where the hostel is, even if she's good, we know nothing about her employers, the DEO cou…”

  
Chase cuts himself off mid-sentence, when he sees the looks Xavin, Alex and Molly are exchanging amongst themselves, “You- She- She's been at the hostel?”

  
Alex let’s his eyes fall to his shoes, obviously a little embarrassed by his decisions. Molly takes a step closer to a confused Xavin, and crosses her arms tighter in anger, small face, contorted in a frown, but says nothing.

  
“She, yes, but not the government agency, she promised me, and I know she-“ Xavin tries, but it seems to be useless.

  
Chase scoffs then, letting out a mocking laugh, “I cannot _believe_ , after everything we've gone through you'd just… And now we can't go back, are you all _fucking_ happy?!”

  
With that, he kicks a sizable piece of wood from the fluffy grass, so hard it smashes against the side of his house and startles Molly, who jumps nearly two feet from her spot. Alex rises, fuming, the veins on his neck so distended, it seems like they're about to pop.

  
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, big guy,” the boy interrupts, coming to stand right in front of the taller teenager, “we don't swear in front of Molly, remember? _Specially_ not after you left all of us to go after daddy dearest and just look where it led us? We were only trying to save your butt from your own stupidity!”

  
“You little…” Chase nearly growls at the younger boy, and Karolina decides this might be the moment to slide in between their bodies, one hand on each of their shoulders.

  
“No fighting, you two.” The blonde asks, sending them both a look that said, ‘shut up or I'm electrocuting your ass with my rainbow lights.’

  
“Don't you think we've gone through _enough_ today? You two just gotta act like goddamn preschoolers? I don't care who left the group, what I know is that you're _both_ leaving, if you don't get your facts together, I will not let you put us in danger by being dumb.” After that, both boys turn more sheepish, eyes falling to their respective dirty shoes, while Karolina turns around to face the rest.

  
Xavin and Molly are staring at her, right from where the grass meets concrete; and behind them, Nico snoozes happily onto the grass. Further away, closer to where the big, black gates of the Stein property meet the street, Supergirl is still discussing heatedly with the armed woman, who seems to be very angry with the hero.

  
“I say we trust them, she saved us, we have no reason not to” Karolina nods to herself, “we're going back to the hostel.”

  
“But-“ Chase's eyes go wide, “what if she comes for us, Karolina? Supergirl could break all of us in half, and it wouldn't even be that hard!”

  
“It doesn’t matter.” The blonde nods more assuredly this time, “whatever happens, we deal with it together, like a family, we don’t split up, we help each other, and if we keep being like that, we'll win any battle.” Karolina then quirks her head at the rest of the group, eyebrows arched, “ _Alright_?”

  
They all nod, letting out affirmative grunts. Only then, does Karolina allow herself to breathe, releasing a deep breath that feels so good, the blonde almost shivers.

  
“Kryptonian is coming.” Xavin warns, just as the hero lands from a quick flight across the garden, right behind the blonde, who turns to face her.

  
Supergirl is staring directly at Chase when she does, “I’m going to take your mom out now, sorry for not letting you in before, it just doesn't seem the safest. It's your cue to leave, if you all don't want to be here before she wakes.”

  
Chase seems like he’s about to do so, even turning to walk towards the Rolls Royce, that has been halfheartedly parked by the sidewalk. But then he turns around again, and takes a step forward, seemingly changing his mind.

  
“There's something in there, actually, that I'd like your help with, if you don't mind.”

  
Supergirl agrees to help, and a few minutes later, the heroine is flying out of the broken down garage holding an enormous 3D printer, all sleek and silver, with a big hook, protruding from it like a claw. Chase presses a button to the side and it recoils into a tiny cube, that he stuffs into his pocket before sliding into the driver’s seat.

  
When asked, the boy merely says that the printer is for a very important project, one that will help them bring Gert home. Xavin also seems to discuss something with the hero, before joining the others to leave.  
Everyone is too tired to ask a lot of questions, instead they all just watch the view of the beach right at dawn, when the sun is barely peeking from beyond the horizon, until they reach the hostel.

  
It's different than before, that is obvious. The main entrance, that had previously been an ancient piece of iron, heavy enough that it served as a deterrent from bad guys, has been replaced by a high-tech, silvery door, with a keypad to it's side, where a piece of white paper is glued to.

  
In it, there is a numeric code, and right under, only a few words.

  
_Welcome,_

  
_I hope you can see this as a peace and help offer, not as any sort of threat, as I am none and have none to you._  
_We will await contact after your friend is found, so that your mission can be completed._  
_All the best of luck,_

  
_Supergirl and the L-Project._

They're not sure what Supergirl is talking about, and the teens end up standing in front of the door for a few minutes, unsure of their next step, until Molly huffs annoyedly and punches in the numeric combination that had come with the paper.

  
As soon as the modern iron doors slide to the sides, exposing the inside of their subterranean mansion, however, it's impossible to miss.

  
Every single surface, the furniture and decorations, the chairs and tables that used to pile in dirty, old, broken pieces, hurdled to the corners of big luxurious rooms; and all those rooms too, sitting forgotten, covered in mold and dust so heavy it layered the floorboards, seemed to have been restored.

  
The same house they had lived in for the past few months. Their old, decrepit, surely haunted shelter was now brand new, varnished and expertly glued together, as if it has never sunk into ground, never seen anything but waxed wood and shiny tiles.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> I bet you can guess who's behind the L-Project. 
> 
> I'm sorry to say supergirl characters will not be very extremely present in this story, I just really wanted to have a bigger association or compound helping the runaways every once in a while for future reasons and if you've ever watched S.H.I.E.L.D, you'll know it's got a VERY complicated dynamic and story to it that just didn't fit the narrative. 
> 
> I have so much planned for this story, so many plots and sub-plots that I have to develop, so I really couldn't give a lot of time to explaining the organization or adding enough details, so why not just create one with some of my other favorite characters? 
> 
> Also, hope you don't mind the first few chapters being very much just a lot of information. 
> 
> I swear it'll get very action-packed very soon and everything they're talking about is very important for the whole thing. 
> 
> Hope to see you next Monday!


	4. 23 and me never looked this easy

Karolina carries Nico into the hostel once they arrive.

She's never done it apart from a few short minutes before, but the brunette is almost light against her girlfriend's arms, probably due to the fact she hasn't been eating much since Jonah's “murder”. Karolina makes a mental note to watch her eating, once she wakes up; Nico can be a hardass, and she's absolutely capable of taking care of herself, but that doesn't mean she always _remembers_ to do so, or _wants to_ , for that matter.

It always scared Karolina, just a little bit, that someone so amazing, kind and _lively_ could have so little disregard for her own safety. Then she realizes it might just come with the violently blind courage she fell in love with in the first place. The selflessness Nico always tried so hard to hide.

Leslie had been waiting anxiously for their return. She hugs her daughter very tightly, pressing into Nico's curled up body, who snores peacefully from between the two; the girl is very much a heavy sleeper but Karolina still uses her unconscious state to escape from further questions and usher her mother back to bed.

Once in their remodeled room, she lays the small goth on soft mattress and tucks her smugly under a blanket, before sliding onto the other side of the bed. Her hand finds Nico’s and she pulls it to lay her fingers over the other girl’s wrist. Ever since the day the hostel got broken into, when Nico over-exerted her powers and fell limply on the floor, Karolina finds relief in the soft, rhythmic thudding of her pulse against her digits. It helped her sleep then, and for many other nights after it.

However, in that early morning in particular, the blonde's restlessness could not be cured by a simple trick. There are too many questions Karolina thought she might ask in the morning, after some well-deserved rest, and they swirl around her brain like a colony of wasps, repeatedly stinging the sides of her skull, until she's unbelievably tired but still sleepless.

It doesn't help that Nico's alarm clock keeps mocking her from the bedside table, fluorescent numbers glowering through the dark. It's 4:17 in the morning. Morphing into 4:18 as she stares gingerly.

The last few hours had revealed a lot more about herself than Karolina honestly ever signed up for. And yet, lying there with her eyes travelling from the numbers to the ceiling, feeling so drained that she couldn't glow even if she tried, Karolina realizes she knows nothing.

Jonah was with her in the glass tube, or at least a version of him.

He took her to a blue-sanded beach, where the water reflected and shone under the surface in a giant cacophony of colors, like her skin when she flew but more reflective and whimsical. She could see bright yellow fishes, biting at the surface with their radioactive mouths and slipping back just as fast, slimy neon scales twinkling like stars from under the surface.

Jonah told her it was a beach in Majesdane. And after hearing that name, Karolina's heart filled with warmth.

Because she recognized it, and never once had the blonde felt so inherently linked to something by merely listening to it muttered out loud. Karolina wanted to know more, wanted to know everything. She asked repeatedly, not even angrily at first, when the confusion of getting knocked out led her to believe it was all a dream.

The demands became more furious as time went on, when it downed on her what had truly happened, that he had locked her in there indefinitely, for whatever new maleficent reason. And _God_ , was she angry that she _ever_ trusted this man.

His voice would always remain calm for a long period, musing lowly about being exiled and the fate of his family, and Karolina knew that was the real him, under the disguise of Victor Stein's body, she could feel it in her blood. But then if the blonde responded with even a small fraction of anger in her tone, he'd go silent entirely, standing still on the sand like a freaky statue.

She got some words out of him even in that state, by kicking sand and throwing a rock straight at his forehead, but his voice wasn’t the same when it reverberated to warn her about the vulnerability of her physical body, floating in a glass tube at his mercy.

It sounded like when she found the recordings, the ones he had left hidden in her mom's office a few weeks prior; empty, and cold. He hadn't disclosed a lot of information then as well. Those were mostly unintelligible, sentimental nonsense, if she really thought about it.

At the time, Karolina thought maybe he hadn't thought those details to be as important as his farewell message. After all, what would she say to a kid she never got to meet? Would she really care for the details and intricacies as much as leaving them a message of love?

It always eventually came to her that yes, she would, if they were this important.

In that tube, the blonde finally realized this had all been a part of Jonah's plan; keeping her in the dark about all those things, (though she's also almost a hundred percent certain he just likes to hear himself talk.) he wanted her to believe he was the only one capable of helping, that if anything ever happened to him, Karolina would never know where she was from, or who she was. Jonah gave her just enough to spark curiosity, to keep her coming back, never enough that she didn't need him anymore.

He knew that the blonde would protect him, maybe even do bad things for him, like frying Alex's computer, or keeping the others away from the hole.

Karolina let’s her eyes fall to the clock again. 4:45. 4:46. 4:47. Watching the numbers change helps with her anger, the way her fists curl into balls when she thinks that her naivety put her friends in danger, that she was blind to Jonah's manipulation. That she believed him, over them, countless times, and Nico could be dead right now, because of it. Because he wanted her dead, her Nico. The Nico she might love more than she loves the world, more than she loves air.

All because she thought she needed him.

And seeing Supergirl just hours before, punching through iron and firing laser beams from her eyes, had only made her angrier, because it helped her realize that they weren't exactly the only aliens on Earth. Quite on the contrary. Over the last century, the amount of aliens walking amongst humans, cloaked or otherwise, had only increased, even if it was easy to forget about it, if you were sheltered by your parents enough.

And yeah, the kinds of questions she had were very specific, pertaining only to her original planet and what _she_ was, which made it harder for her to believe she could have them answered by anyone except her biological father… But the blonde isn't alone anymore, at least not in the alien DNA sense of the word.

*****

With that thought, Karolina finds herself sitting up on the mattress before she can really think about it. It's late but the blonde knows Nico is probably the only one who is truly asleep, apart from maybe Molly, and the thoughts that take her mind are too loud to let her even so much as stand still.

Karolina walks down the stairs, trying her best to avoid the spots where she knows the wood will creak. The whole place is dark, save for feeble rays of moonlight that seep in through the glass roof in the atrium. Karolina tries to glow, a way of illuminating the way, but instead, she feels herself getting very dizzy and has to hold onto a wall for support.

Whatever she did at the Stein's house, when everything exploded in white light, it absolutely drained her powers.

Once recovered, the blonde advances towards the heavy wooden door in the end of the only downstairs hallway. She knocks twice, politely, and waits until the occupant allows her to enter before stepping in.

The place is what could have only been described as a music room, back in the day. It's walls are lined in dark wood, random pieces of furniture scattered around a great piano that had all it’s chords ripped out, probably by the heroin junkies that used to occupy the hostel. Karolina wonders if Supergirl’s people fixed that too.

Xavin is sitting in one of said chairs, skimming through a book that rests in their lap.

“Couldn't sleep?” they ask, as Karolina walks to one of the other chairs, sitting right across from the shapeshifter.

“Not even a little bit.”

“Well, maybe you should ask Les-”

“I want to know more” Karolina let’s out, before Xavin can finish their sentence “About Majesdane. About where Jonah is from,” then she pauses, and thinks for a second, worrying at her bottom lip. “Where _I'm_ from. I want to know what was that explosion and why the hell is he even here to begin with. I want to know why they wanted Nico dead, why they still came for me, if they didn't need me anymore. I want to know everything, I… I don't think I can go on without knowing and you're the only one… the only one that I thought to ask.”

Xavin is quiet for a minute after Karolina's onslaught of words, brown eyes going glossy over a random area on the Persian rug under their feet. The blonde bites her bottom lip harder, until she tastes a drip of blood, suddenly scared that she's spoken too much, taken it too far somehow.

“Well…” the xartanian finally speaks “I won't lie and say I was ready for that, thought that perhaps you'd take longer before seeking for answers. At least until the morning, to be precise.”

“I can't sleep.” The taller teen repeats, she scratches at the inside of her arm worryingly, nervously, until there are angry, red marks on pale skin “I need to know what was that light, why that happened when I touched Nico, I… I thought I hurt you guys, I can't handle not knowing anymore.”

Xavin's expression goes a little soft at that, they seem to consider something for a second before rising from the chair, “I can't tell you exactly what that was, I'd honestly never heard of such a phenomenon before, but I know what caused it, and it’s not harmful in the slightest.”

“Then what _was_ it?” Karolina asks, eagerly watching as the other teen shuffles through a nearby dresser, clearly searching for something.

  
“Majesdanians call it the Alhievaare Anshtanoes” Xavin explains, not looking up from their search, “or the healing glow. Your and Jonah's family are the only ones that have ever been documented to have it. Your grandmother, specifically; she had it so strong that her glow was exclusively pure silvery white. Jonah didn't inherit it, though his glow developed a mix in between blue and white. He did try to mimic the power by channeling it into gloves. But even then, everyone he healed would eventually fall back into sickness”

“So, I can _heal_ people?”

“With your hands, yes, I had been warned you'd develop your grandmother's abilities before even coming here. Though the explosion wasn't how it always presents. Could just be sensory overload, and given your questions, I'd imagine you had never done that before, so it's pretty possible you simply flared your powers.” Xavin explains, digging deeper into old blankets and loose pieces of clothing, “which means, you used all your energy into Nico so it manifested that way”

The xartanian then, finally, pulls a small, sleek black device from the drawer triumphantly, “found it!”

They walk back to the furniture circle, dodging a small coffee table to stand in between the large, velvet chairs and the piano. Karolina is about to ask what is going on when Xavin places the device on the floor, right in the middle of the awkward furniture circle, and suddenly speaks, voice very nearly bordering on excitement.

“ _On!_ ”

Suddenly the ashy, dark room both stand in is filled with light, colorful and so bright the blonde's eyes go blurry.

She has to blink a couple times before anything comes into vision. It's her light, or very close to it, at least. Reverberating off the walls in shapes of every color; imploding and exploding, melting together and falling apart.

When the blonde finally searches for the source, she finds a giant sphere. It floats a couple inches over the device, under thin tethers of electricity, so thin they look like hair, indicating it’s a hologram.

“This is Majesdane. Your star.” Xavin exclaims from the other side of the hologram, and Karolina's eyes fly to them, barely able to distinguish any features due to the shine.

“Wait, I'm from a _star?_ ”

“Yes, a cold star, but a star nonetheless. Majesdanians are light forms, they have ethereal, boundless bodies, made of light, as have all the other living beings in Majesdane. They look like you when you glow, but with more leakage, so the light spreads to the air around them like borealis.”

“Borealis?” Karolina asks, she stands from her chair to study the image of Majesdane from closer, watching, dumbfounded, as a big explosion of purple spread around one side, before melting into orange and blue.

“The Aurora borealis.” Xavin complies “or something that looks like it. Here on earth, it is caused by the yellow sun powering electrons in the atoms of the atmosphere, but Majesdanians can't control how their light powers electrons around them, it just floats into the air, so there are always borealis around their limbs.”

Karolina thinks of the light she used to distract the Gibborim followers when they were at the crater, and again before that, at the church; of recreating them for Nico one night, when the brunette couldn't sleep.

She remembers traveling to see the northern lights with her parents as a child, jumping excitedly under a puffy jacket two sizes too big as she gaped at the beautiful lines, a truly mesmerizing oscillation of green light, exploding across the sky.

It had never occurred to her that her own lights looked like a pinker/more colorful version of that until now.

Then, Karolina frowns slightly as another question comes to mind “but if they're… boundless, or whatever, does that mean they don't have bodies?”

“Not how you imagine them to have, more like… approximately body-shaped starlight.” Xavin explains, gesturing lightly with their hands, “you're half human though, that explains why you maintain a specific shape even in your Majesdanian form, such cases had already been observed in other hybrids" they continue, walking around the sphere to stand closer to the blonde.

“ _Expand_.” Xavin commands.

Majesdane, or it's holographic counterpart, slides upwards in the slightest, then stops and begins spinning rhythmically in place. Two rings appear around the star, and attached to them are three planets, or what looks like it. One is deep green, the other, purple with Saturn-like rings, and the last, a light shade of periwinkle. All three spinning around Majesdane and themselves consistently.

“This one,” Xavin points to the green planet, the biggest of all. Karolina studies it closely and notices two small moons and particles of light blue, like grains of salt, twinkling all over the electrically charged surface of the hologram “Is my planet, Xartan.”

“This…” they point at the purple one this time, with the silvery rings, “is Alessuria, and the last one is Ollyria, which hasn't been inhabited for centuries.”

“Majesdanians have had offspring with natives of it’s surrounding planets, Xartanian and Alessurian alike. Most presented their powers just like yours, the controlled light, localized borealis, ability to shoot light with their hands…”

“So there are others like me?” Karolina can't hold in the hopefulness in her voice, she feels less alone now, with the image of her star, shining gracefully onto the windowpanes.

However, there is still some strangeness there, she is not like them, just more alike than she is to humans. And even then, too human to compare.

Xavin goes more somber at that, eyes darkening over in sadness, “Unfortunately, not. There was, before, but they've all been killed, a long time ago.”

Karolina feels like the air got sucked out of her lungs, give it to Xavin to say stuff like that this matter-of-factly, “B-by whom?"

“Your father.”

Karolina scoffs, she imagines it's a surprising response to the information, but the blonde is also incredibly tired, and it seems like everything around her right now is a constant reminder of Jonah's evilness, which doesn't exactly help with her guilt “Why?”

Xavin let’s out a long breath then and sits down in one quick movement, “You should sit for this.”

“Whatever it is, I can take it.”

“I'm sure you can.” The xartanian assures her, “it's just a _very_ long story.”

Karolina stares at them suspiciously for signs of a lie, but finds nothing.

“Alright.” The blonde let’s out a final huff and sits in the chair across from them. “Go on, then.”

Xavin takes one long breath, cracks a few fingers expertly, like they're about to spout a centuries-old timeless tale, and begins.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... we're almost done with all the exposing I'm STILL having to do to get this plot going. I blame the fact we know jackshit abt Jonah and Karolina atm so I'm having to do it all by myself, but we're already getting somewhere :))
> 
> Hope ya'll enjoyed chapter 4!


	5. ye old and wise, the traveler tells no lies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so this was the first chapter I ever wrote for this story. 
> 
> It pretty much has the thick part of the plot, so I'd say pay attention to the details, pretty much everything we talk about here will end up coming back as we go along. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy :)
> 
> \- clara

It was probably a week before Chase left.

Karolina had woken up before Nico for the first time in very long.

The brunette used to be a late riser, only waking when it was already close to noon, but running away had made her fidgety, anxious, even _scared._ Nico could have nightmares all night, depending on how much stress she was under, and she always shot awake, breathless and sweaty, clawing onto the sheets as if she needed something to cling onto. 

Karolina would wrap her arms around Nico's shoulders then, pull her in and hum lowly against thick, velvety hair. She knew what it was like, the constant dreaming. For months after discovering her lights and their parents's murderous plan, bad dreams were all that the blonde knew.

At least in that aspect, Karolina could say the hostel had the exact opposite effect on her. She'd always be so tired when her head finally hit the pillow that she slept like a rock, with no dreams whatsoever. Which she imagines is just a side effect of being on the run, having to fend for themselves or starve. It wasn't exactly an easy feat, feeding six teenagers and a daenonycus.

Could also be the fact that she was leaving, very late, to meet Jonah on the mountains, only coming back around three a.m. every night.

She hadn't the night before, her father deciding it'd be better if they met in the morning. Karolina doesn't exactly know why, but that made her optimistic. Maybe they were getting somewhere after all.

So she woke around five thirty, when it was still primarily dark outside. Her girlfriend was asleep, deeply, sprawled across a mountain of dark sheets like a starfish, and through the faint lighting that came through the window, Karolina could see the elegant rise of her cheekbones, the constant and slow movement of her breathing. Sometimes she'd scare herself at how much she responded to Nico.

Even now, as she sleeps peacefully in their dark room, Karolina's heart still skips a beat, her breathing stuttering slightly. Mostly from the thought that she'd probably given anything, three months ago, to be just where she is right now, sitting on their shared bed, watching Nico as she snored happily.

Karolina doesn't know the exact reason such a memory would come back, long after it was done.

That was just a regular morning, as far as those go around the hostel.

The blonde walked to her dresser, and fished out clothes just like any other day. She had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast, with a glass of milk. She flew right through one of the windows, and floated until she found the beach where their meeting had been scheduled.

Everything went according to plan.

But then there's one thing. And if there's any reason, it would probably be this.

Nico rolled comfortably in her place when the other girl rose from the mattress, falling open-mouthed over the edge of the blonde's pillow.

“ _Kare ga kite iru._ ” She whispered, as Karolina shifted through her clothes in the nearby dresser. Anyone else might have thought the girl to be awake, but the taller teenager had become increasingly accustomed to her girlfriend’s bilingual sleep-talking over the course of their relationship.

Those aren’t words she understands - to be honest, her Nihongo vocabulary consists solely of all the expletives Nico let’s out when they're in bed, plus the names of some of her favorite dishes -, but they sound _ominous_ , almost heavy when uttered into their silent bedroom. Karolina shakes her head, willing away the worry that settles there.  
  
Nico is fine, she talks in her sleep since she was three, it’s no big deal.  
  
“ _Kare wa watashi_ ” the brunette speaks louder this time, eyebrows pressed together in thin lines “ _no tame ni kite imasu._ ” Her forehead creases like she’s trying to solve a puzzle.

Karolina slips into one of her robes, covering up the small tank and shorts she had put on for sleeping. The house was incredibly chilly that morning, as even now with the Supergirl renovations, central heating is still just not really an option. Nico shifts again, to the other side this time, and keeps muttering the same phrase under her breath.

 _“Kare wa watashi, no tame ni kite imasu._ ”

“ _Kiite imasu ka, Karo?”_ this time, Karolina’s head snaps up at her own name mixed with the foreign words. She walks to the other side of the bed and kneels next to Nico's head, letting long pale fingers dig into pitch black tresses.

“Nico.” She calls, and the girl frowns further, pressing her lips together into a round pout “Nico, baby? What are you dreaming about?” Karolina digs into her scalp, lets her nails rest there.

“The dark man…” she sucks a deep breath in then, whimpering lowly whilst frowning “the dark man and the red eyes” her breathing goes a little distressed at that, and Karolina has her palm against the girl’s chest, over her sternum, before she can think about it, pressing steadily until she calms. It works too well, however, as Nico seems to fall further into a more restful sleep.

It was something she did a lot, when the other girl was panicking. None of them ever understood how it worked so well, but now she thinks it might have something to do with her newly discovered healing hands.

“Nico? Nico, are you there?” the blonde calls, but she already knows there will be no answer.

Karolina tugs her under the blanket again, pressing a kiss into the side of her head before leaving the room.

******

_Thousands of Earthly years ago, Majesdane found itself with no ruler._

_They had a good king before that, one who was generous and not prideful, who loved his people above all else. He ruled successfully for various generations, bringing peace and prosperity to their world, beloved by all, feared by many. However, such love and power was bound to be envied, wanted by others who would do anything for that sort of control._

_Not very far from their galaxy, in Eternia, an Eternal had become corrupted. Steering away from his race's intended purpose and activity, a creature who had been educated and designed to be a protector of Earth and other worlds alike, began to want._

_That eternal was called Dimäe, or Hive, due to his unique abilities to make others follow and obey him blindly. Abilities he had gained by learning how to hone energy from the dark dimension. Hive's unique powers helped the Eternals in achieving their purposes many times before, but for every world-eater Hive helped take down, his envy for them only seemed to strengthen._

_He wanted to be the ruler of worlds, the biggest and most powerful emperor in all of the universe._

_Of course, the other eternals were against him, and tried to stop their compatriot from following through with his plan, but Hive evaded all their efforts and left. He traveled far, searching for his first colony, knowing he needed something big and prosperous, so that even if his brothers were to find him, he'd already have a sizable enough army to fight them._

_He decided on Majesdane. It was big, full of riches, peaceful enough that the king hadn't tried too hard on the defenses. Perfect for the beginning of his empire._

_When Hive attacked, there was really not much that they could do. Soldiers would come, brandishing big swords, only to stop on their tracks, turn around, and march alongside the corrupted eternal. That night, he killed the king, who, for all his goodness and kind, had left no successors, advisors or warriors brave enough to fight against the Hive._

_So he began taking their free will. After only a short period of time, the big majority of Majesdanians was already under his control, ready to fight and die for him._

_That could have been the end. Hive would've won over the star, and used such leverage to take other worlds, control them until he was the only ruler. But, by a sliver of destiny, from the dire situation the Majesdanian people had been put under, a hero emerged._

_A young girl by the name of Rena._

_Rena was a normal majesdanian teenager, living in Auberon City, she thought herself to be perfectly ordinary, but after her lover fell under the control of the Hive, she discovered that she could heal him, and others, from the control of the dictator. Rena had been born with a completely white, silvery glow, which wasn't common in Majesdane, where everyone had their specific colors. But even though people always told her she was special, Rena'd only realized how much when her healing powers came in._

_She used her abilities to build her own army, creating amulets that would allow her warriors to be immune from Hive's powers, by carrying just a bit of hers._

_It was a long, arduous fight, but the Majesdanian people came out victorious. Rena and her lover, Miran, were crowned queen and king, and queen Rena's first order was that the Hive's dark dimension powers were to be extracted from him, and trapped in three amulets of her designing, filled with both her healing power and the Hive's._

_Those were baptized as the Gem Trifecta: The Gem of Half, The Gem of One, and the Gem of Mind. Each of them pertained a completely different ability, and the only way that the energy of those gems could ever be handled is by using both Rena's and Hive's blood to perform a freeing spell._

_Then, Rena exiled the Hive into Ollyria. He had no more of his special powers, only very little of the ones that were merely normal to his Eternal physiology, yet the extraction that the monarch performed on him left their thoughts and essences forever linked. Even then, with no one and nothing in Ollyria that could help him, the Queen predicted Hive would be stuck there forever, never able to do any more harm to their star._

_She had linked the gems to her blood because then, only her or one of her bloodline would free it. The monarch even went as far as to, decades later, when her son was born, decide that he was only to know about the trifecta in the occasion of her death, trusting the secret of the Hive's whereabouts only to her husband and one of her advisors._

_It happened, however, that the prince was being watched._

_Hive used of his blood bond to the Queen to create a connection, so he could watch the boy develop. It could have been that, what ultimately led him to the same thoughts and delusions of power that Hive had presented as a youngster, or it could also be that he already had them, engraved in his mind way before he was born._

_But the matter of fact is that the Prince began dreaming of conquering. He began wanting for the throne, and then dreaming about once he had it, how he'd take whole empires, make them bow onto his feet, have everything and everyone listen to only his voice._

_Hive obviously saw that as a way in, he began appearing to the prince in dreams, telling him to steal the gems and take them to Ollyria. Hive promised him that once they freed the trifecta's power, they'd reign over galaxies together, take Majesdane and everything around it. The prince agreed._

_He stole a pod and went to the desolate planet, where there was nothing but periwinkle water and random, small islands of purple sand. It was there that he met the Hive. They performed the ritual and freed the power of the trifecta to be handled. Either by those who had Rena's blood, or Hive's._

_Then, side by side, the prince and Hive unleashed war onto Majesdane. They took everyone, from the king and queen, to the guard and the armies. This time with a lot more power than first, as the gems didn't just unleash Hive's power, but a lot of the Queen's too, who had placed it there when creating them. A selfless act which led to her eventual demise._

_Once they had the star, Hive and the prince (who had decided to rename himself as the Magistrate,) turned their eyes onto the other inhabitable planets of their galaxy._

_That was when it became apparent that their views on how to follow the plan were very different._

_Hive wanted to go slow. He had tried it before, and now, having went further than the first time, with the successful taking of Majesdane, didn't want to risk scaring the other planets' population so much that they'd revolt too violently. The Magistrate, however, wanted everything, he didn't just want to be a conqueror, he wanted to be feared, wanted people to be afraid of saying his name out loud._

_Above all, he wanted Majesdanians to be the only ones with all the power. Wanted everyone, everything else dead or enslaved, and the little bit of control he'd already gained made him blind._

_Hive thought before it'd be best to keep the boy under his wing, both because he was indeed very powerful, and also because as the only other who could possibly use the gems, it would be smart to keep an eye on him. However, the Magistrate took it way further than even the eternal had ever thought._

_He hunted and killed all hybrids of Majesdanians with other alien species, along with their parents. Even the ones who tried to flee and seek shelter in other planets were eventually found by his sorcerers, and executed. The Magistrate wanted that to be a warning, he wanted people to be afraid to ever mix with what he referred as "lowly races"._

_It just so happened that in that process, the ruler of Xartan's daughter and lover were killed. They had been having an affair with a Majesdanian scientist, who agreed on keeping their child a secret until her beloved could withdraw rightfully from a loveless marriage and invite her to rule besides them at the court._

_They were devastated, and in the wake of their grief came a whole lot of wrath. Ileon (how the ruler was named) joined forces with Alessuria, and decided to attack Majesdane and dethrone the dictators before it was too late._

_When Hive found out what the Magistrate had done, he was furious. The gems would have easily won them this battle before, but because they had so many minds "hived" onto them, the eternal knew that going to war would eventually kill them._

_So, when it was evident that a battle was coming, he took the trifecta and left. A lot of the people who were being controlled came back, but some, who had been hived for longer, remained following the Magistrate blindly. It still wasn't enough to win._

_The war created a centuries long rivalry between Xartan and Majesdane. The Majesdanians, waking up from a long sleep, found Xartanian soldiers standing in the wake of a ridiculous amount of destruction and their king and queen gone. The way that they dealt with it was by massacring a big group of Xartanians who had tried to bring help to the more affected by the war. Which only made the hatred mutual._

_The Magistrate was eventually captured and put into a ship, along with all of his followers, and thrown into space, where it was supposed to float aimlessly for all of eternity, and that was how it ended. The Hive war, at least, with it came the Centurial War, that still happens today._

When Xavin's room becomes silent again, nearly an hour since they've started talking, the holograms still float peacefully over their heads, but now the first rays of sunshine have already seeped through the previously very dusty windows.

Karolina just sits there for a minute, not really knowing what to say, or where to look. It's like her brain could explode from all the information, and at first it all seems to mix together in a cacophony of voices.

Eventually, she finds the words, "It didn't, though, did it?"

"What?"

"The ship, it didn't 'float aimlessly', or whatever."

"Oh... I guess not." Xavin seems pensive now, eyes following Xartan, which circles Majesdane smoothly.

"Why here though? Why would he want to come to Earth?"

"Hive." The xartanian responds smoothly, as if that's enough of an answer, and then continues after a long breath, "Halfway through the Phantom Zone, Jonah detected him and changed the course. I was told not to intervene at any circumstance because of the prophecy, only let external forces act upon my story, so I couldn't stop him."

"So you came with him because of the prophecy?"

"It came to light right after the war. We were told by the Oracle that the Centurial War would only ever end, and both planets find truce again, when the stowaway, or the traveler, finds the spectrum, and they fall in love, that they'd then marry and bring home the trifecta as a peace offering." Xavin explains, gesturing wildly with their hands, which wasn't something Karolina thought the xartanian did when they first met, "My parent was told on the day I was born that I was to play a big part on the prophecy, so she sent me on the ship with Jonah when I was just a child. The spectrum was told to be born far away and in the Magistrate's presence, so it was only logical i had to go with, if he was never to return to our galaxy."

"And how do you... how do you know it's me? The spectrum?"

That word nearly throws the blonde into a whirlwind of memories and problematic thoughts. Spectrum is also what her grandfather wrote about, on his slightly insane ramblings, scattered over, around and in between colorful drawings and poetry. She thinks it's annoyingly funny, how so many people doubted those writings right in front of her, her whole life, only to be talking to the entity herself.

Xavin chuckles then, like Karolina's just told a funny joke, "Your lights, Karolina."

"What about them?" The blonde asks, eyeing the xartanian suspiciously. Is it weird that she's slightly offended for her alien glow?

"It's not... usual that Majesdanians have every single color. Normally they're born with one color, mixed in with white, which may or may not change as they age, some people develop a second, or even third one, but it isn't common, that was why Queen Rena's light color was so unusual as well. Historically, the spectrum is said to be someone to whom all the colors belong." They explain, calmly, and then continue "That's... you."

Both of them fall silent then. Karolina with her eyes focused on the smooth movement of the holograms, that still tumble smoothly through the air. It's only a second but feels like longer, probably because Karolina still has a million questions, and formulating all of them doesn't prove itself to be any easier than before.

"Ok... so, let me get this straight, Jonah came after the Hive, who's apparently on Earth too, and you... came with him because we need to get some gems?"

Xavin frowns, eyes going glassy for a moment as they seem to consider the questions, "Well, yes. But not just _some_ gems. If they ever fell into your father's hands... it really wouldn't go well for your human friends. I'm sure he'd spare you, maybe even me, as a piece offering from when he returns to Majesdane, but humans are nothing to him."

Karolina's eyes fall to the ceiling, where she knows her girlfriend dozes peacefully right over their heads. The blonde wishes she could look at Nico right now, know she's safe would probably ease the shiver that rattles up her spine, "He'd enslave everyone, use them as soldiers in his war against other planets. Do to this place what he did to Majesdane: mine all the riches, destroy all ecosystems, kill thousands of those who don't agree with him... And that will only be the beginning. After Earth, he'll find another planet, do the same thing to it, and keep going until the whole Universe is nothing but ash and destruction. As long as the gems exist for the taking, no world will ever be safe from your father" Xavin explains, passionately, the words tumbling out of their mouth before they seem to consider them, eyes going glassy, as they seem to reminisce on the destruction of their solar system.

"But if we collected them and performed the ritual once more, that'd be our final chance, the only way we could ever end the war once and for all, the only way we could win over him, and know he's never coming back."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean emprison him once and for all. Free the Gibborim, free your grandparents and brother and all the ones who still follow him from the trifecta. Once the ritual is done, we can take the royal family, _your_ family, back to where they belong, we can bind the trifecta to Majesdane once again and use it's energy to bring back the prosperity and riches it's always known."

The xartanian leans forward eagerly on the big, comfy chair, studying Karolina's expression in earnest, "This is _our_ destiny, my beloved. It was written before we were born, before even some of the stars we see from the windowpanes, and it shall find completion, for the goodness of the nations."

Karolina goes silent again after that.

She's just now starting to feel the slightest bit sleepy, but the prospect that she might be able to rescue her majesdanian family, Majesdane itself and apparently the whole universe is what leads the blonde to start feeling claustrophobic in the old music room. In just over a few months, Karolina went from not knowing her grandparents and brother existed, to praying for them to be good and trying to rescue them, to getting her girlfriend possessed and running from the destruction they'd caused in her friend's house.

And now she finds that they've actually been brain-washed for a very long time and she's the only one who might be able to help?

Not only that, but there is also a centuries old prophecy that says she needs to marry a practical stranger and perform a ritual or her murderous father will end up destroying everything she's ever loved?

It's not exactly easy on her sleep-deprived brain.

"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" It's the first thing that comes to mind, and Karolina nearly chokes on the emotion she is trying to keep down.

"I thought we'd have more time." Xavin sighs, dejectedly, seeming just as tired as the other girl, "The Magistrate has been... distracted lately, and, well... the prophecy said we'd have close to two decades to know each other, before we had to collect the gems, and perform the ritual, so I... I thought we'd be safe. I thought we'd have plenty of time..."

" _Thought?"_

"Yeah..." the xartanian bites onto the inside of their cheek, "Supergirl told me she'd find the Hive, right after my ship exploded, when I first came into contact with her. It wasn't easy, and took a good amount of time but she... she found him. I don't know where, they have a very sigilous protocol with the L-Project, but she told me we'd have the information once all of you could go get it with me, something about who it belonged to. That was... all fine, I had no problem with simply waiting once I could get you all to trust me but then..."

Karolina waits for a minute, she stares at Xavin, waiting for them to continue. Nothing comes out.

"Then what?"

"Then? Well, then the compound where all that information was being stored was broken into."

"By who?"

"You see, that's the funny part." Xavin chuckles nervously. "It was your father."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This far I think you're noticed the chapters for this story are really big, they always end up being 3k-5k words, and that's mostly why I only post on mondays. 
> 
> But what would you guys prefer I do from now on? Keep posting 3k-5k once a week or do 1.5-2.5k chapters twice a week? Leave a comment with your opinion!


	6. is it the catastrophic parent drama, or just living under the earth?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO sorry for missing a posting day! I was actually at the beach on recess so it legit just escaped my mind. 
> 
> As a reward, I'll be posting ch.7 tomorrow, after I've given ya'll some time to read this one. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!

Nico sleeps for five whole days.  
  


Karolina stays awake for most of them, watching her twitch and squirm through nightmares.  
  


She expects, _hopes_ , the smaller teen's brown eyes will fall open every time her body stills against the sheets.  
  


They don't, and no matter how much everyone tries to wake her, Nico is out for the count. So much so that the blonde could have thought her to be dead, if she didn't still sleeptalk and kick the sheets like a child.  
  


Knowing she's alive does do a little in helping the blonde worry less, but the fact she remains very much asleep makes Karolina feel like her sanity might be leaving, bit by bit, every single morning that rises over the hostel and nothing has changed.  
  


The first night was fine. Karolina even found herself surprisingly grateful that the brunette was getting some very needed rest, albeit under forcible means. She looked peaceful, and Nico deserved peace.  
  


The second was also fine, though it brought along what the blonde could only guess was about to become a lifelong habit of fidgeting with any random objects she might find, and obsessively biting fingernails.  
  


But it's on the third night that things really start looking bad, _feeling_ bad, for that matter. Karolina even spends the whole following day praying that Nico will be up when next morning came. It'd been a long time since she last prayed, probably about a few days before they ran away, when her mom insisted they go together to a worshipping ceremony.   
  


Karolina still remembers asking for protection for her friends and herself, as they marched into the construction site to stop their parents's plans.  
  


The blonde hadn't found anything that worth having a celestial talk for. Specially after it didn't exactly help them on that occasion.  
  


If anything, Nico's worth a shot.  
  


Nevertheless, when dawn of the fourth day greets Karolina's tired gaze, her girlfriend's extended hibernation hasn't yet ended. That bad feeling grows further inside the blonde's heart, expanding across her lungs and chest like a balloon, pressing onto the back of her throat until she can't breathe without feeling the low whistle of panic, warm and viscous, ready to send her into a barely verbal state.  
  


"I know earthlings worry a lot about death, but in this case I seriously don't understand the reason for all the fretting." Xavin observes that morning, from their place across the island.   
  


Everyone else had already scattered around the house to start their daily routines when Karolina decided to finally leave the bedroom. She must've looked horrible, with messy hair, bags under her eyes and old flannel pants, because even the Xartanian, who had shown nothing but wide-eyed amazement toward her so far, frowns in concern over the rim of a coffee cup.  
  


"We already went over the fact that Nico had a power flare, right? She has meta-human abilities, it's common that such bodies go into small hibernations to regain energy when put in extenuating circumstances, even Supergirl has them."  
  


Karolina doesn't look up from where she's scrambling eggs on the oven, her back turned to Xavin, who sits quietly on the marbled kitchen island.  
  


"I know." The words come out in a halfhearted fashion, tiredness seeping into her tone. "it's just that when you said she was going to sleep a lot, I thought maybe 36 hours, not _four days_."  
  


The Xartanian seemingly considers something silently, scratching their cheek with a trimmed nail. Karolina plates her eggs and throws two pieces of bacon on the pan before they continue talking.  
  


"Well, I thought this wasn't that rare here on Earth. Humans fall into comatose states all the time, right?"  
  


Karolina stops on her tracks, bare feet halting against the polished hardwood. She's about to flip one of the strips over in the sizzling hot oil, but her fingers clench against the spatula instead, nearly hurling it onto the new backsplash.  
  


No one had used words like that before.  
  


Like it's actually clinical and serious, and maybe Karolina should be calling 911 or flying Nico to the nearest hospital instead of making eggs.  
  


The balloon fills her throat a bit more. When she breathes, it's right there, so much that her exhale sounds like a choked gasp, stuck on the back of her throat along with the stomach-wirling nausea.  
  


Suddenly Karolina is not hungry anymore.  
  


"Yeah- yeah, but it's not _normal_ when they do, Xavin, it's not- not safe for humans to sleep for this long." The blonde explains, trampling over her words with queasiness. It takes a second, but Karolina finally manages to steady her hands enough to let it go and flip over the bacon, which is now over-cooked on one side.

 

"But she's not human, right? Not a hundred percent at least?"  
  


That's when Karolina decides to flip her head and look at Xavin for the first time in their conversation, which happens so fast she's surprised her neck doesn't crack.  
  


"She's not- what- what are you _talking_ about?"  
  


The Xartanian's eyes go wide at her reaction.  
  


"I am so sorry, Karolina, I had no idea you didn't know!" They frown with worry when the blonde only seems more confused "I mean- she did expel your brother while all the parents are still there being mind-controlled, plus has been wielding an artifact able of carving reality for months and seems alright even when it's _known_ to drive other humans mad." Xavin explains, in their usual matter-of-fact tone.  
  


Karolina knows they are waiting for a response, if the way they watch her intently is anything to go by, but she can't find any words at the moment, instead choosing to mull over the situation. The blonde turns off the oven and fishes the bacon out of scorching oil and into her plate.  
  


She thinks of the video.  
  


The one Alex went through hell to get only for Chase to stomp over like an angry toddler. Of PRIDE performing their very first sacrifice and Tina Minoru's crazed look, how foggy her pupils went when she looked directly at the staff.  
  


" I mean... her mom is the one who's possessed. Mrs. Minoru doesn't seem very close to expelling _anyone_ and she's the one who _made it._ " Karolina turns toward the fridge to grab some orange juice.  
  


"Hmmm..." Xavin hums in place, scratching their chin whilst the blonde serves herself of a tall glass, "humans do still have two progenitors, right?"  
  


"Yeah... we _still_ do." Karolina panes back, stopping for a second to consider asking before deciding it's better not to.  
  


"We don't know what kind of genetic marking gives her these abilities, but it's very possibly passed down from one of her parents. If Nico didn't know until she got the staff, it's very possible her other parent might not even know yet."  
  


"What do you think she is? An alien?"  
  


"No, nothing points to that." Xavin responds calmly, "I was thinking more like meta-human blood, or something of the sort."  
  


Karolina can't help but sigh tiredly, grabbing her food and sitting across from the other teen. The room falls into deep silence once again, this time so absolute they can hear the cheerful hum of Molly singing in the shower upstairs.  
  


She tries to think about what she remembers of Robert. Any unusual behaviours or signs that might point to a clue, as if her childhood memories could possibly unravel the man's inhuman powers.  
  


She has nothing. Just like all of their parents, he seems perfectly usual from the perspective of younger eyes.  
  


"I thought you were going to be happy about this." Xavin breaks the silence, finally, after watching Karolina cut frantically through her food but eat nothing, "you're not fully human as well, neither are Molly, me, your sibling, do you see something wro-"  
  


"It's nothing like that, Xavin." Karolina interrupts before they can finish, "I'm fine with not being human. It took a while but I'm finally fine with it. It's just- surprising. And _God_ , this is going to be hard on Nico..."  
  


"Oh, I understand then. Seeing your story as something only to find out it's another must be very upsetting." Xavin muses, fingers caressing their chin in thought, brown eyes firmly panted on the blonde's face.  
  


It's obvious they're referring to the talk both teens had on the music room. The one she's still refusing to acknowledge.  
  


Even now, Karolina's first reaction is to let her gaze fall onto the food and shove a big bite of eggs in her mouth to distract her mind.  
  


It's not like she hasn't thought about it. She has. A lot.  
  


The tragic Chronicle of Majesdane plays over and over on her mind, everytime Karolina has a little time to think. But the blonde can't let herself worry about any of that, she lacks the energy, maybe even the right, to worry about distant, uncertain, past conflict, with her girlfriend in a coma and her friend being held hostage somewhere.  
  


"At least it means she'll be fine." Xavin decides, taking one last gulp of coffee.  
  


"Yeah." Karolina agrees, nodding slightly. She shoves another fork full of eggs and bacon down her throat to draw out the nausea.  
  


"We can still call someone if you want. Supergirl had a bunch of really good doctors, one even gave me a check-up."  
  


"We won't need that, thank you, Xavin." Karolina answers, with a smile.  
  


She doesn't think anyone can actually help.   
  


Karolina was there, in the garage, so she knows what it looked like when the ground shook, grumbling so loudly it was as if a monster was unearthing itself from the underground to swallow them whole, turning the earth upside down like taking off a sweater.  
  


The sound of Nico in the eye of her own hurricane.  
  


And then there was all the screaming, with whatever happened between the small brunette and Karolina's brother.  
  


How her ears and nose were bleeding, her eyes glowing an eerie purple glow.

 

How everything went silent in a second, when she fell to the floor.  
  


It was like watching a star explode, all cosmic energy and cackling fire oozing out in bursts of blinding light.  
  


Karolina thought there was no way she could have survived.  
  


So she counts her blessings.  
  


She holds on to the fact that Nico is still breathing.  
  


Mostly because it's all she can do not to collapse to the possibilities.  
  
  


******  
  
  


Because of the whole situation, Karolina ends up searching for new occupations around the hostel.  
  


It seems like thinking hasn't been doing her lots of favors as of late.  
  


She used to love meditation, being alone with one's thoughts and breathing, concentrating on how it felt to be alive, and then using that delicate clarity to understand her feelings better.  
  


Right now the blonde doesn't want to understand anything. Karolina knows what worry and fear are, what they feel like, swirling around her brain. She has felt them a lot on the past couple of months, tried every technique and program her mother ever taught, but none of it worked, instead only serving to fuel her frustration.

 

But of course it was easier before all of this.  
  


When the teen was still just a blonde, rich kid living in a Brentwood mansion, going to an expensive private academy. A girl who didn't know how difficult life could be without a credit card and central heating.  
  


It never even crossed her mind that some things couldn't be helped with meditation. That they'd only feel bigger, harsher, more oppressive, the more she let her mind wonder around it.  
  


So, wanting for something that will occupy her mind without allowing for lots of free thought, she decides on helping Chase and Alex move the younger boy's room from the atrium to another one of the random guest rooms. The ones that seem to almost mirror each other, door to door throughout endless dusty hallways.  
  


In each of them, there was pretty much the same things as the last; a bed, a dresser, a chair, the only changing details were the colors. The whole house peppered into schemes that went from sweet, feminine lilac to all-imposing royal red. On their first week there, they'd counted 17 rooms, and there were sure to be more, squeezed onto moldy, undiscovered corners.  
  


Alex's is all dark, caramelized wood, with small accents of ocean deep blue. All of the random desks they holstered up the steps end up scattered, thrown in unconventional angles and covered in electronic parts, monitors and keyboards. So much so that it becomes hard to cross the room without tripping on wires, or stubbing your toe onto the leg of a table.  
  


In return, the atrium is also completely changed.  
  


Chase spends all of the first night back installing Victor's 3D printer, and rambling semi-loudly as he uses old pieces of chalk to draw a giant diagram of a ship onto cracked walls.  
  


_The Leapfrog_.  
  


Three huge murderous metal cabins of different sizes, screwed onto giant robotic frog legs.  
  


Karolina's sure the thing is never going to take flight, and she's grateful for it, really. For someone who just discovered her otherworldly star blood, the blonde sure hates the idea of being trapped in _any_ metal cabin a thousand feet above the ground, let alone one designed _and assembled_ by her goofy, lacrosse playing best friend.  
  


Yet she still helps, glad that her powers seem to be greatly appreciated there, specially once most of the big parts have been assembled and the ship towers over all of them, toward the also modified cupped ceiling, where no one could reach it's wires and buttons.  
  


Before that, the only two who were working on the machine were Chase and Molly, fueled by their shared need to bring Gert home as soon as possible.  
  


Chase acted like the image of a mad scientist, drooling over his project all night with a crazed look in his eyes whilst downing can after can of Red Bull.  
  


Molly simply tried her best with the bouts of energy she had, helping the boy lift big scraps of metal and keeping them hoistered until securely screwed in place. But even the fifteen year old couldn't do it for more than a few hours, and right after, she'd nap for even longer, balled up onto the side of an old sofa.  
  


Chase stopped only when it was time for food, slept for the few minutes he doze off on top of a keyboard or a long notebook of increasingly more difficult equations.  
  


Karolina tries to help him when she joins the assembly team, even successfully coerces the boy into going to sleep many times, and pulls him to the kitchen for a snack every once in a while, but that's the most the blonde found she could pull him away from the project.  
  


Then again, it seemed like all of them were in their own version of chaos at the moment.  
  


***

  
While everyone else was helping build the leapfrog downstairs, Alex remained holed up in his new room, obsessively hunting for Old Lace's tracker I.D.. None of the others knew exactly what transpired between him and his parents, but they'd seen the news right after.  
  
  


Catherine and Geoffrey Wilder in handcuffs had been a sight nothing short of bewildering.  
  
  


"I had no idea where to start with the tracking when we came back." He rambles, two days after the garage. They can hear the loud clanking of Chase's hammer and the high mechanical hum of the printer from downstairs.  
  


Karolina is all sweaty and her hands, smeared with dark grease from helping Molly screw the windshields of the main cabin.  
  


"Then, I found this little beauty right outside!" The boy fishes something from under a semi-large pile of metal carcasses and twisted limbs that are stilted onto the corner of his room.  
  


It's one of the drones, the ones their parents had created to capture them, now destroyed and useless, one of the wings barely hanging on by a couple of wires "And, of course, it had tracking for Chase, which was how they found us before. But then I remembered that time they made Old Lace sick, and thought, _what would I do to an active tracking signal I wasn't using anymore?_ "  
  


"I don't know, Alex, I just need Chase's wrench." Karolina rasps out, gesturing lightly to the metal tool, resting on top of one of his numerous desks.  
  


"They'd loop it, of course!" He continues, ignoring the blonde's request, "it's brilliant, really, because there is no way someone is going to find it without knowing the tracking I.D., but after you do..." Alex saunters frantically to one of his computer screens and presses a bunch of keys before it lights up into a map. " _Voilà!_ "   
  


Now, Karolina approaches the screen, hunching over it's keyboard to study what Alex is so animatedly talking about.  
  


"They're... in New Mexico?" She asks confusedly, watching the small red dot blink slowly, not moving from it's place on the outskirts of the state, what she imagines should be a few kilometers from actual Mexico.  
  


"That's where it gets interesting." Alex explains, pulling up a few new windows, all twinkling with numbers and information the blonde can't read, his hands shaking around the mouse "See the date here? The last update is two days ago, then two days before that and so on and so on. Normal trackers send waves back to it's satellite source every few seconds, and since there is no way of erasing those signals entirely without going through a whole process, besides the fact that I think they'd need their systems back in case Old Lace went awry, they just programmed it to refrain to a few frames per week."  
  


Karolina has to blink slowly, trying to process the long strinded ramble that just left Alex, who radiates nervous energy from head to toe, "So... this is where they were days ago?"  
  


"Precisely." The boy nods enthusiastically, "which means we'll have their exact location in two days."  
  


"That sounds perfect." Karolina answers, not really giving it much thought as she steps aside and grabs Chase's wrench.  
  


She turns to leave, Alex already back in his computing haze, hunched over another screen and punching in random keys. The blonde stops there for a second, thinks of asking if he's okay.  
  


But he hadn't wanted to talk about it, when Molly asked, (or any of them, for that matter) right after they came home. Then, everyone seemed to agree on allowing the boy to place all his untamed chaotic energy into locating their friend.  
  


They knew, if anything, _that_ might help them get somewhere faster. A seventeen year old computer genius applying all his other-worldly parent angst onto the search.  
  


It's not like they haven't watched each other do way more than that for similar reasons.  
  


It's also not like the blonde can scold him about telling them the whole truth.  
  


She gets it. More than anything.   
  


Karolina still hasn't told them about her and Xavin's conversation in the music room.  
  


She had agreed, along with the xartanian, that what they discussed would only be disclosed to the rest of them once Gert and Old Lace were home.  
  


Just like her feelings over Nico's flare, those thoughts felt like too much for her to handle at the moment, or at all.  
  


What came to her the most were the words Xavin used when trying to teach her the healing powers, both teens sitting on the floor of the Xartanian's bedroom.  
  


"He's coming for all of you soon, whether you are ready or not."  
  


Whenever Karolina thinks about it for more than a couple of seconds, she can feel the balloon, right on the back of her throat, pressing down until she wants to vomit all over the floor.  
  


Mostly it's because of the night at the sinkhole.  
  


Her lips still stained from kissing Nico for the first time.  
  


How much it hurt when he won.  
  


The violent metamorphosis of going from floating on a cloud because the girl she liked her whole life kissed her back, to her teeth shattering harshly together when Jonah's beam of light overtook hers, electrocuting her whole body in return.  
  


Like falling several feet to the ground and getting the wind knocked out of her lungs.  
  


Like breaking all the bones in her body twice.  
  


Like getting kicked on the ribs over and over again.  
  


Most times, no matter how much people around her gawked at her powers, how many times she got praise and adoration for her lights. All Karolina could do is remember that night, and she feels like he might win over her a thousand times.  
  


Maybe even take her life next time.  
  


***  
  


So she understands Alex's need to just forget it.  
  


And how the only way they'd ever get even close is by not saying any of it out loud.  
  


***  
  


Nico wakes up confused.  
  


The room is stuffy and she's sweating all over, dark hair sticking to the sides of her forehead and neck.  
  


Karolina sees relief in her eyes, when they meet across the room. Feels the sharp, comforting pressure of Nico's jetblack nails, sinking onto the back of her neck when they hug, and how she almost seems to sob against the taller teen's shoulder.  
  


They spend the next day explaining to her everything that happened while she was out, and Nico listens intently, clinging onto Karolina's hand the whole time, asking only a few questions, her voice now slightly damaged by all the screaming that happened in the garage.  
  


There's nothing like the relief Karolina feels, to have her girlfriend back awake and alive. However, it soon becomes obvious that, just like every single one of the others, Nico's not her usual self.  
  


She doesn't answer much when they ask what happened when she got possessed. Just that she didn't remember leaving the hostel, and only came to her senses when they were in the Stein's street, which matched Xavin's description of following her out with the others when they saw the dark veins forming around her fingers.  
  


Her first night back, Karolina lies awake for a long time. She watches the brunette frown, talk, drool against the pillow before falling into her own slumber. The first in a long time where she didn't shoot awake with nightmares.  
  


At least not hers.  
  


Because it's around 3 A.M. when Nico wakes screaming. So loudly, Karolina's ears are buzzing before her eyes open.  
  


The brunette is kicking, convulsing, crying against the sheets like she's been possessed by a demon, scratching her own face and neck until Karolina's first instinct is to wrap both her arms around the other girl's shoulders so as not to let her reach, right before she was about to roll out and fall flatly onto the floor.  
  


The blonde presses as tightly as she can, trying to remain steady as Nico fights to squirm away from her grasp.  
  


"You're fine, Nico. You're fine, we're all fine." Karolina keeps repeating, shushing the other girl softly for what it feels like a lifetime.  
  


Eventually, she goes soft, and Karolina uses the fact that she has both arms firmly planted against her sides to turn Nico into looking at her. Her skin is covered in red blotches and scratched from her own fingers, it mixes into the swelling under her eyes, so Karolina needs a moment, in the ashy dark of their room, to realize she's crying.  
  


The blonde has only ever seen her cry a couple of times, for the seventeen years they've known each other, and most of them were when she was just a child.  
  


"Nico, what was that?" She asks, ghosting trembling fingertips over Nico's tears, smearing them away only for more to come, accompanied with strangled, short sobs, "are you alright? Please talk to me."  
  


"I'll be fine, K." Nico responds, but her voice doesn't even come close to convincing, pained and breathless, mixed into wet, raspy sobs "I swear I'll be fine. It was nothing. It was a dream, everyone's fine." it's a lot more like she's trying to convince herself, reaching in to fist a bunch of Karolina's pink sleep shirt.  
  


The blonde sighs and pulls her up, laying on her back with Nico's head on top of the blonde's strong shoulder, Karolina's arm still around her shoulders and Nico's small fist still bunched around the other girl's shirt.  
  


They're in silence for a second, and it's obvious Nico is trying to keep herself quiet, but Karolina can still hear, _feel_ the other girl's stifled sobs against her skin.

 

"Nico, whatever it is, you know you can tell me." The blonde assures her, rubbing up and down the other girl's back smoothly.  
  


"I know." Karolina looks down to find chocolate irises, focused on her own. They're filled with so much pain and fear that the blonde's heart hurts, the harsh swell of her own panic, pressing onto the back of Karolina's throat.  
  


"Then talk to me, Nico, please." She nearly begs, and Nico's eyes escape from hers entirely, falling instead somewhere over their freshly painted ceiling.  
  


"Karo, can we just-" her brown eyes close. She bites her bottom lip in thought, and only then continues, returning her gaze straight to Karolina's crystal blue one "can you glow for me? Please?"  
  


"Nico, you-"  
  


"I don't want to talk about it." Nico let's out, her voice going the harsher it's been since she woke up. Then, seeing the way Karolina's muscles stiffen slightly, she seems to reconsider with a small sigh, "just for tonight, Karo. Please?"  
  


It doesn't help that Karolina would probably kill for Nico.  
  


She'd get killed for Nico.  
  


There's nothing the blonde wouldn't do if she just asked nicely.  
  


So she leans forward and presses a kiss on Nico's forehead, letting her lips linger there for a second, before falling back into place, with her head on the pillow and one arm around the other girl's shoulder.  
  


They watch the ceiling for long minutes, Karolina's lights swirling mid-air, transposing and mixing in with each other, reflecting onto the walls, windows and her skin.  
  


With Nico so close, Karolina would usually feel on cloud nine.  
  


The blonde still remembers the night they spent in the Gibborim van. How her heart shot up her throat and her breathing faltered when she felt the other girl wrap her arms around her waist.  
  


Mostly because those were things she thought she'd never get from Nico, at least not in a non-platonical way.  
  


And ever since Karolina got that, well... it's certainly more than she'd expected it would feel like.  
  


But not this once.  
  


This time, she feels like seven again, when her dad took her to the beach and she could see the ominous shadow of distant clouds, suspended over the water in gray mist.  
  


The girl could feel it on her skin, everytime the rain was coming.  
  


It's like that now.  
  


Like the worst is yet to come.  
  


But Karolina can do nothing but watch Nico pull away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this was one of the hardest chapters to write on the whole thing, and this fic is already like 50 chapters long so you all better get ready for the ride! 
> 
> Next chapter is Leapfrog time and Deanoru being good, communicative girlfriends to each other, just wait. 
> 
> Come yell at me on tumblr!


	7. the two halves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my favorite chapter of the WHOLE thing. Also, deanoru are fricking cuties in this story and I hope you like reading fluffy deanoru as much as I like writing it. 
> 
> Hope you like it!

Two weeks after the garage, Alex finally finishes decoding Old Lace's tracker I.D. and pinpoints a specific location right outside Yucatan. The Leapfrog is also mostly finished and running unpopulated flying tests, where they see if the ship can fly safely before trying to manually pilot it and putting their lives in danger.  


The first time around, when Chase assembled the auto-pilot, they were all there, to watch as the glass roof opened into four triangular sections like a clementine, or petals or a rose (it had been modified somewhere along the last week by Alex) and the engine roared loudly. Giant, mecanic knees tensed onto a tight angle, getting ready for a leap.  


A sound Karolina can only compare to an airplane engine - when it's inches away from your ears - buzzed through the walls. The whole ship hurled gracefully upwards before darting into space faster than any of them thought possible, and disappearing through the circle of light that illuminated the dreary dark inside the hostel, right under five pairs of flabbergasted eyes.  


After, everyone piled onto the mismatched chairs that face the control panel, watching the stats and images change rapidly across several monitors.  


The control panel was mostly a collection of assorted screens, mounted to the wall behind a semi-circular table covered with keyboards, a mouse, two different microphones and four speakers. It was originally part of the renovations, but had only been equipped with a call center and connection to the new security system. Chase actually spent a whole day adapting it to work for the cameras and systems installed in the leapfrog, just for the simulations.  


Which, eventually, dwindled down to the second, the third, the fourth, everyone at this point at least slightly sure the ship wasn't going to crash into a pile of scorching rubble.  


It seemed determined on completing it's programmed course and charging back into the atrium time and time again, barely stammering in the process. Chase even drove it into an active storm, just to see what happened, and it barely caused a dent to the machine's system.  


Karolina herself couldn't help but watch the whole commotion with nervousness at first, knowing she'd probably have to step inside it at some point and take her chances with Chase's very young, very _not an engineer_ hands. It does grow on her though, at some point, when the girl realizes it's most likely not going to crash. Also, that she can actually read the stats just like the boys, and find they made a whole lot of sense.  


Karolina'd been so focused on using the ship's building process as a way not to think about her problems that she hadn't realized it had actually been fun. She learned a lot from it, a lot that she never thought could be interesting, or beautiful.  


Coming to that conclusion, Karolina couldn't help but feel proud.  


After all, the thing she'd helped assemble was now flying, and not only flying but doing a damn good job at it.  


***  


It continues to do so for all the tests, following through everything just fine. Yet, when they are finally down to the last test and the ship would be ready for tripulation, the only two that still sat, watching intently from their places across the panel, are Xavin and Chase.  


The Xartanian had also helped a lot throughout the process, providing them with lots of information about space travel, and how their own ship had worked before. At some point, after seeing Chase get increasingly more frustrated with trying to project an energy source, they'd even gotten into contact with Supergirl and scored some very powerful L-Corp spaceship batteries, which, according to Alex and Chase, was like, one of the best.  


Karolina swears they've kissed it at least once.  


She actually sat with them for a few minutes too, enthralled by the view captured from their dash camera, of boundless ocean and blue skies, until it gets a lot harder to concentrate.  


It's honestly become quite tedious now that it's the seventh time they've launched.  


Plus, she hasn't seen Nico all day, which is not exactly common, even if they do live in an enormous compound.  


They still sleep on the same bed every night, but Nico keeps her light on and mostly has a book. She hasn't been talking a lot, and Karolina doesn't wake up with screaming again.  


At first she thinks it's a good thing. Her girlfriend is no longer in bed every morning when she wakes up, which is the usual for them. Her mood seemed fine as well, the same sarcastic, sometimes very cold, others incredibly warm personality Karolina enjoyed so much.  


But lately things only got more difficult.  


Everyone else on the hostel were still dealing with their own private issues and, as a result, the whole atmosphere around the place got quite dark and silent. Just now everything they'd been through was finally settling in and it'd left them with a lingering, suffocating feeling of helplessness, seeping in through their skin until it itched with bottled up angers and barely explored traumas.  


Even Leslie learned how to drive the Rolls Royce and now spent her days filling in the pantry and scouring local stores for cute baby clothes.  


It was only normal that Nico would eventually fall into her own patterns of avoidance.  


As Karolina came to realize later, one night she woke up to her own nightmare. The blonde had been so incredibly tired that lately she couldn't stay awake for over a few minutes after her head hit the pillow. She always assumed Nico went to sleep after her, but that night the bed was empty, and their clock showed it was three in the morning.  


So Karolina rubbed sleep away from her eyes and went after the other girl. Found her, at some point, looking through a fairly large box of knives and swords whilst sitting on the floor with her legs thrown over the hardwood.  


The blonde probably shouldn't have pried. She'd been doing fine by keeping her nose out of the others's businesses, but something about this being Nico, and not any of the others, made so that Karolina desperately wanted to help with whatever it was she was going through, specially when it just downed on her that Nico hadn't been sleeping at all.  


They ended up fighting, a lot.  


Nico was _furious_. Like the blonde had only seen her a couple of times before, shouting about how she didn't need to be coddled, how the whole situation was already bad enough without having Karolina and the others staring at her with wide-eyed worry all day.  


And, well. Karolina got mad. Maybe she shouldn't have, as the one of the two who had at least a little bit of rest since Nico's impromptu hibernation state, but _God_ , only Nico could possibly think of people trying to help like _that_ , and only she could make Karolina this fucking angry by doing so.  


It was yet another one of those moments in their relationship, where Karolina finds herself surprised at the kind of effect they have on each other. Nico could make her feel like she was floating on a cloud, napping over soft grass under boundless blue sky, like nothing bad in the world could ever reach them, with just a smile.  


But she could also make her feel like she could burst out of her own skin, like her whole body is on fire from all sorts of different feelings. Only Nico could twist her stomach in longing as it did, break Karolina's heart a thousand times with only one tear of her own... turn her blood into boiling lava with just a few words.  


The blonde guesses this is what she gets for being in love with a force of nature.  


***  


Karolina watches Nico for a few seconds from her place on the threshold. Dark hair in a bun and face entirely devoid of makeup. She watches the big, dark circles around her eyes, how slender her jawbone and neck look from this angle.  


Nico could stop time if she wanted.  


All she'd have to do is reach out for her staff, now half buried under a pile of assorted fabrics.  


Yet, she doesn't have to.  


Sometimes, Karolina swears Nico has control over every single muscle on her body.  


Like now, not a word's muttered, but the blonde's breathing, her movements, halt completely, all on their own.  


"Are you gonna talk? Or just stand there all creepy?" Nico teases, turning the blonde's cheeks a dark crimson, but there is a fair amount of humor, as their eyes meet over her shoulder.

Karolina feels her heart warm, realizing she's actually in a seemingly good mood.  


They're in an old ballroom, rectangular and luxurious, the ceilings sparkling in gold details and a large landscape of extensive lakes and forests, with chubby angels flying playfully throughout the whole thing, as if watching over the tiny paint people that might peer at Nico and Karolina from above.  


Also the shiny floors, cut in diagonal and triangular shapes instead of the normal planks, covered right in the middle by two large Persian rugs. The only furniture in there, swimming in a sea of open space, are the chandelier, a small, claw-footed table and the loveseat that faces it, back turned to the only window.  


Nico is standing by the table, and all over it are knives, swords and katanas, all neatly organized in rows. She grabs a small butterfly knife and begins to polish it with a gray rag.  


"You just look really hot playing with knives." Karolina answers, and she can't help the swell of pride that takes over her chest when Nico giggles a little under her breath.  


"I think Super-lady left them here, or they were buried under a bunch of shit and we didn't see before." The Asian teen muses, setting the butterfly down and reaching for a dagger, "Either way, she gets points from me."  


"They're pretty." Karolina observes, carding her fingers through the ridges on the marbled handle of a katana.  


Nico smiles at the articles, looking them over as if she hadn't yet considered it from that side, "Yeah, they are. They're useful too, after we're done with the Gert and Old Lace rescue mission we should definitely do some training, I mean, we all saw how badly it went before but maybe if we tried martial arts instead of superpowers we'll actually g-get somewher..." her phrase melts into a strong yawn that she obviously tries to fight, mouth molding into a perfect O.  


Karolina knows she probably shouldn't. It isn't like her to meddle. The blonde could honestly leave every single one of the people in this place alone to deal with their own demons, but not Nico.  


Not when Karolina's heart could break at the big bags under her eyes. How pale she looks, compared to her usual light natural tan, skin almost sickly gray.  


She'd get yelled at _a lot_ , if it meant Nico decided she'd take care of herself.  


"Still not sleeping?"  


"Hmmm..." Nico groans, leaning into the table for another, bigger knife. Obviously not intent on talking.

 

The blonde watches for a few more minutes, sitting down on the loveseat, eyes glued to the way her girlfriend's mouth forms into a pout that she crooks to one side. It's a clear sign that Nico is deep in thought, a small tick Karolina has watched her do for seventeen years.  


"He's gone. If that's what you're scared of. If you're afraid he's going to take control again, he's gone."  


Nico stops.  


She's completely still for a moment, apart from the peaceful rise and shine of her breathing, eyes firmly planted on the blade of the knife she'd been trying to polish.  


"I know." Words come out, eventually, mixed into a weary sigh, as the teenager sets down the weapon but doesn't move from her spot by the table, "I _felt_ it, when he left, and I think I did too when he was in there."  


Karolina opens her mouth to talk, ask her what it could be then, but Nico proceeds.  


"Listen, it's just been very rough lately but I swear I'm going to be fine-"  


"I know you are" Karolina interrupts before the brunette can finish her sentence.  


Nico archs a perfect eyebrow in response, as if encouraging her to elaborate. The blonde scoots back a little and sinks into her seat, eyes not leaving her girlfriend's.  


"But you are not _right now_ , Nix." Karolina continues, and she sees the way her girlfriend's eyes falter, deep chocolate twinkling with a hint of tears.  


"None of us is fine. I mean- Chase is _obsessed_ with getting Gert back like, unhealthily so. Gert is in freaking _Yucatan_ , probably getting tortured to death with _boredom_. Alex sent his parents to jail, which is _crazy_ , even if he _did_ hate them. Molly has been sleeping in Gert's bed and watching Jurassic Park since the shopping center-" Karolina rambles, counting off examples on her fingers.

 

"and I- I feel like if I stop moving, I'll just fall into an over-thinking hole and die in there."  


Karolina expects a verbal response, but it becomes obvious she won't get it when Nico's expression softens, but her eyes dart to the loose pieces of thread on the rug under their feet.  


"We're all not okay." The blonde continues, "and I'm sorry I haven't been here, you'll know why, very very soon, but I am _now_ and I want to help you."  


"Because you're my girlfriend?" Karolina's heart hurts a little at the self-doubt, because God, this stubborn, smart, beautiful girl deserves so much more than to doubt all the love she has for her.  


"Because you're a good person, who deserves at least eight hours of sleep every night."

 

Nico chuckles, her eyes shining when they meet, quickly, and then sighs heavily, accepting defeat. The teen bites her lips for a second, looks at every corner in the room but at Karolina, as if she's trying to find the words.  


"I keep having the same dream." The brunette says, finally, eyes still not meeting the other girl's, "it's this _place_ , but it _isn't_ a place, it's just... nothing but a horrible smell, and darkness." Her normally hoarse voice comes out watery and slightly pained.  


"Everytime, I can hear screams and people crying really loudly, and then those armed men are there, the ones that kidnapped Livvie, they're clawing at my feet and look really sickly pale but their eyes are completely black and they just won't _talk_ , and then my mom, with Mr. Stein and Mrs. Yorkes and a whole bunch of other people, _so many_ of them, they all hate me, they grab my clothes and hair and limbs. And I cry, at first, but it turns on me, and suddenly I can see my eyes are purple. Then, all of a sudden, you're there. you, Chase, Alex, _Molly_ , and I- I kill all of you, one by one. You just fall to the floor, breathless, and there's nothing I can do, there's never any way to stop, you're all clutching at your throats trying _so hard_ to breathe and then... just dead."  


"Nico..." Karolina tries from her spot a few feet away from the other girl, a little surprised at the amount of emotion suddenly in Nico's voice, wrapping around her words until she's wheezing through breaths "It's just a dream, I-"  


"You don't get it." Nico interrupts, and when her eyes meet the blonde's worried ones, there's a certain franticness to her movements, as if she _needs_ Karolina to understand.  


"A few months ago it might've been just a dream, but those people... the ones that are there, before you, they've either been hurt by the staff or your dad, and your dad he- he _wanted_ the staff, he kept saying I was evil, that I had _demon blood_ and that was why your brother couldn't possess me and what if- what if this actually turns me evil? What if the staff _changes_ something in me and now I'm a ticking time bomb to all of you, Karo? I can't do this. I couldn't think about it before, and I can't just dream it again and again like some sort of sick torture."  


Nico's voice is now even more frail, made heavy by all the emotions, and she can't meet the blonde's sight, choosing instead to hide her teary eyes. Karolina watches silent tears stream down her face and her heart breaks just a little.  


"Nico..." she repeats, and then waits in silence until her girlfriend looks at her properly. Her brown eyes are bloodshot, a few hiccups escaping along with more tears, and that's when it breaks a lot. "Come here."  


Karolina opens her arms, and Nico seems to think for a second before she takes a few steps and damn nearly sinks into the other girl's lap, curling into a fetal position in between her legs, with a head on her shoulder. The brunette cries further into the blonde's pink sweater quietly, as she clings on to Karolina's arm.  


The other girl wraps her arms firmly around Nico, shushing and rubbing her shoulder calmly.  


"You remember when we were twelve? There was that boy who teased you for being short."  


"Marcellus Earwood III? Of course I do, dude had the worst name in history." Nico responds, letting out a watery chuckle and a sniffle.  


Karolina chuckles too, and then falls silent, "I got sent to Great-Nana Dean's house for the summer for punching him in the face, but it was _totally_ worth it."  


"I remember. He pushed me, and then you came out of nowhere and hit him right on the nose. There was blood everywhere!"  


"Mom was _mad_. She forbid me from talking to any of you guys, and I legitimately cried for two whole days nonstop..." the blonde smirks nostalgically at her twelve year old self's theatrics, eyes lost somewhere ahead, on the freshly painted walls "But then you came to my window, with my favorite ice cream, sugar cookies, and The Lion King on VHS."  


"I ran to your house _so_ fast so the ice cream wouldn't melt." Nico's giggles echo in the blonde's ribcage and she revels in the feeling, just for one moment.  


"Is it stupid to say that was the moment I fell in love with you?"  


Nico's head lifts.  


Her eyes meeting Karolina's blue ones, at first she's very serious, and right after, a mischievous smile takes form on her plump lips, "You like ice cream that much?"  


The blonde laughs, and Nico picks that moment to hook an arm around her neck for support, now sitting with both her thighs over Karolina's on the couch.  


"It's just- I was so sad. When you're twelve and your mom forbids you from seeing all your friends it's like telling you you're gonna die alone, you know? But then I saw you smiling at me through the glass, and everything felt right in the world, just for one second. I didn't care if my mom was mad, if I missed the others, if I was about to be sent to the most boring place in the world for summer vacation, I was just... happy."

 

After she's finished speaking, the room is so silent you could hear a pin fall.  


Nico watches Karolina intently, one arm around her neck and the other reaching over to cup the blonde's cheek, who leans into the touch slightly, revelling on Nico's soft thumb caressing there.  
  


"What I mean is I've never met anyone able of such incredible _light_ , that it just seeps into everything you touch. And maybe I'm biased, I'm sure I am," Karolina let's out a nervous, watery laugh before continuining, "But what you do to me, Nico... I'm sure it counts."  


At that, the brunette leans in and presses her lips onto Karolina's forehead, letting out a long breath over her golden hair, hand still stroking the blonde's cheek softly. Karolina hooks her hand around Nico's wrist, the other one tightening against her waist, and let's her eyes fall closed at the warm feeling in her chest.  


They sit there for a little bit, and then the brunette separates her lips and leans her forehead against Karolina's instead.  


And this time they don't move, just sitting there calmly, holding on to each other.  


It's funny that Nico doesn't know, but she's doing it again.  


Because Karolina feels like it's been a long time since she was able to _breathe_ like this.  


That only makes it easier for her to continue talking.  


"You know, black is my favorite color now because of you." Karolina observes  and then she smirks, more to herself than the other girl, "I was taught in church that it's a heavy color, and it weighs on your soul... But then you came in and made it yours and suddenly I thought it was the most beautiful of them all." When Nico smiles, Karolina hears it through closed eyelids.  


"That's why I know that even if the staff is the worst, biggest, baddest evil of all, even if the place in your dreams is real, you're the only person, in this entire universe, who could make it into something good."  


The blonde feels Nico pull on her jaw, lifting her head so they can face each other. The two girls are only a few inches away, so close Karolina can smell her girlfriend's dizzying smell, like expensive soap, perfume and warmth.  


Nico's eyes are so haunting, when they meet, so filled with pain and fear, gratitude and love, that Karolina can do nothing but cry too, hot tears streaming down her face before she can stop them.  


"You really think so?"  


"Nico." The blonde reaches, she tucks a strand of dark hair behind Nico's ear, dries down a tear with her thumb before cupping her cheek, "sometimes I think if anyone's _enlightened_ in this place, it's got to be you."  


And it becomes the other teen's turn to reach.  


She bends down her chin and presses warm lips on to the inside of Karolina's wrist, before leaning in and kissing away the tears that are still forming on the blonde's flushed cheeks.  


When their lips meet, Nico tastes like salt, paired to her usual violent softness, the same feeling Karolina gets everytime they kiss.  


Like the brunette's a riptide, a primordial tidewave.  


Pulling Karolina into the deep so fast and suddenly, sometimes all she can do is gasp for air against her honeyed lips, and let herself be drowned in the oxygen deprived deep, too smitten with the alluring power behind Nico's touch to really fight it.

 

Maybe because she doesn't want to. Maybe because Karolina would probably let Nico cut her throat, if it meant they could kiss one more time.  


But that's what you get when you fall in love with a force of nature.  


"What did I ever do to deserve you?" Nico whispers against the taller teen's lips, both arms now around her neck.  


Karolina feels like saying something really cheesy, but it's too much for the situation they find themselves in. So instead, she leans forward and kisses her again, humming against  dizzying warmth.   


Nico deepens the kiss, pressing further into the blonde's body until they're flush, the only thing separating them, offending pieces of clothing. They keep kissing for a few more minutes, enjoying each other's company as best as they can after all the time they'd spent apart.  


Then, Nico pulls away, sitting there in silence for a second before she's yawning, hard, against Karolina's lips. The other girl chuckles a little in response, her free hand that isn't supporting Nico's back sinking into dark, soft tresses.  


"You should sleep." Karolina offers, calmly, and then let's her fingers sink further into rhythmic caresses when she notices the brunette's uncertainty, "I'll sit here with you, I'll wake you up, if you're having a nightmare."  


Nico watches her suspiciously at first, but then a small, exhausted moan leaves her lips when Karolina scratches on that spot right behind her ears, and suddenly she's lying down, positioning herself with her body sprawled across the loveseat and her head resting atop Karolina's thighs.  


"You promise?" She whispers, eyes already rolling closed from her girlfriend's ministrations.  


"I promise." The blonde responds. And then she watches, adoringly, as Nico slowly falls asleep.  


There's something special about when all her muscles go numb. How peaceful and warm she looks, like a cuddly kitten, curled under the windowsill.  


And Nico Minoru has got to be a force of nature indeed.  


With how perfectly it fits into her,  both unprecedented rage and power, and the softness that melts onto Karolina's lap now.  


***

They lay there for a couple of hours. Nico, deep in what seems like peaceful slumber, and Karolina, scrolling through her newly acquired Twitter account with one hand, and carding through the other girl's hair with the other.  


The blonde would have probably stayed there all day, not really fond to the idea of interrupting Nico's very needed rest, but they're going into the third hour when the telltale, deafening buzz of the Leapfrog echoes through the walls, and Nico begins stirring awake.  


"Did you sleep well?" Karolina asks, when the brunette opens her eyes and blinks drowsily at the ball room's luscious ceilings.  


It seems like she's about to nod, a small smile forming on the side of her lips, when the tall royal doors swing open and Molly shoves her head into the crevice.  


"Hey guys, sorry for interrupting," she says, in her usual cheery tone, "it's just that the leapfrog is back, and Chase is gonna fly it for the first time now."  


Nico sits up at that. They exchange a look, and then all three girls are running down the stairs, jumping through the steps and giggling. They reach the atrium, scampering into the ship with Alex ushering everyone inside like a bus driver.  


Inside, it's all bigger than expected, slim and detailed at places but also modern, with clean lines and a very simple color-scheme that went through grays, blacks and whites. They have to pass the living accommodations to get to the cabin, feet hitting against metal floors with dulled _bang_ s.  


That's where everyone squeezes themselves, each in one of the seven seats that face the dashboard, which is a combination of a dozen screens and the view that'd extend beyond them, once in the air.  


Karolina's stomach is doing somersaults, her hands sweating as Chase takes his place on the captain's seat. At this point, they'd all grown to fairly trust the machine and it's conductor not to send them hurling into a violent death, but that didn't mean the blonde didn't have the right to panic just a little bit.  


"Everyone ready?" The boy asks, throwing them a look from over his shoulder.  


All of them nod nervously, looking amongst each other for a different reaction. He turns and pushes a small lever that's mounted inside a small black line, pressing slowly until it reaches the other end.  


"A'ight then." The legs tense under them, sending the whole cabin several feet down, "hold on to your valuables."  


Karolina feels Nico's hand slip into hers.  


And she honestly doesn't know if the butterflies in her stomach are because of the smile the other girl gives her, when they look at each other from their respective seats.  


Or the fact that they're hurling through space, flying across the sky a thousand miles an hour.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo? Give me your opinion, I've literally been wanting people to read this ever since I first posted this story. 
> 
>  
> 
> Also, I'm sorry I might not be posting on Monday again bc I'll be working a conservation job on a beach, so, no internet for the whole time... I'll find another posting day tho, really soon. 
> 
> Till next time! 
> 
>  
> 
> -Clara


	8. When in Mexico...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! This is probably going to be the shortest chapter of the whole thing but I'm leaving today and will only be able to post #9 on thursday or friday, so didn't want to leave you guys with nothing. 
> 
> I hope you like it! 
> 
> \- clara

Their first trip aboard the Leapfrog is to an ice cream shop. 

 

It’s gleaming hot, right on the height of californian summer. Sunlight glares through the windshields so harshly that soon they’re peeking through semi-closed eyelids, fighting for glances of boundless glimmering ocean, expanding endlessly beneath them. In it’s entirety, it’s nothing but blueish silver, made shiny by the UV rays that lather heavily over the surface.   

 

Since they’d only been able of setting up the ship’s takeoff way past noon, it wouldn’t be wise to try and fly to Yucatan knowing it’d be completely dark soon, even if the pilot  _ really _ wanted to. 

 

Instead, everyone eventually gave in to Molly’s excited cheers for the charming ice cream shop they’d just flown by. Nico even splurged on a big cup of caramel fudge, her childhood favorite. And then she watched Karolina and Molly try not to get their toppings snatched by seagulls, both girls sitting by the deck’s fencing to see the fishermen work underneath, standing away from the rest, who all hid safely under a canopy of white and pastel pink canvas. 

 

The Leapfrog remained cloaked throughout it all, just some miles away from the more populated side of the beach. It’s unsure if someone noticed them, scampering out of an invisible aircraft, but it must have been a story and a half, if anyone believed them at all.

 

*** 

 

After ice cream, Alex and Chase get some takeout from a Chinese restaurant across the street and then go back to the hostel, planning on sleeping early so as to save energies for rescuing Gert in the morning.  

 

They all end up on the atrium, spread across a big sofa, a couple chairs and haphazardly thrown pillows over an old, soft rug. Everyone eating spring rolls and Yakisoba from cardboard boxes while watching  _ Jaws  _ on the control panel, the Leapfrog towering behind them like a sentinel of warm metal and shiny glass. 

 

Alex had set up a streaming system after they came back from the garage, both so he could update himself on what they’ve missed on Netflix  _ and _ watch the Star Wars trilogy as many times as humanly possible (not the other ones, only the three original). Still, Molly got picking privileges that night and the girl had been developing a whole list of PG-13 movies she wanted to watch now that neither Dale, Stacey  _ or  _ Gert could stop her. 

 

Nico was unsure at first, but then decided it was only far, since Molly was already stuck at the hostel just like the rest of them, that she got to have a little bit of fun. She’d fought alien royalty alongside a certified superhero at this point, seen actual real blood, gushing from wounds during battle. There was really nothing a dumb movie could do to scare her. However Nico does veto the _Saw_ movies, all of them, preferably forever, it’s probably best to be safe than sorry.

 

They’ve gone through  _ Groundhog Day  _ and reached  _ Clueless _ when Nico begins to doze off, pressed onto Karolina’s side, one hand wrapped tightly around her waist. 

 

On the TV, Cher is trying to pose sexily for Christian while they watch  _ Spartacus. _

 

“Oh, this is the best part!” Christian ushers her anxiously, and then it cuts to a bunch of shirtless men releasing a war-cry over the opposing army. When the boy turns to see if she’s looking, the blonde rolls violently off the bed, falling to the floor underneath with a  _ thud _ . Karolina’s breath heaves with giggles, lungs pressed tightly to the side of Nico’s face. 

 

“Are you ok?” the boy asks, as Nico feels herself getting pulled under deep slumber.

 

Christian peers down at Cher from the edge of the mattress. Chase and Xavin snore softly around them, one on each side of the couple on the old rug. Molly is also almost asleep, splayed over her spot on the couch, fighting the drowsiness on her eyes that struggle to stay open. Alex moans and whispers in his sleep, laying across an old recliner. 

 

“I’m fine!” Cher assures, pouting heavily. 

 

Karolina chuckles again, louder this time, and it’s all Nico needs to fall further into sleep, letting the warmness of the moment envelop her whole. 

 

For the first time in a long time, Nico has a full, heavy, dreamless sleep. 

  
  


***

  
  


When she wakes, it’s to rambling and sunlight, violently beaming over them from the glass cupped ceiling. Karolina is still asleep, back pressed to the rug and long legs half-wrapped around Nico’s. Everything is so silent for a second, the brunette can’t help but nuzzle further into her girlfriend’s fluffy pink sweater, already dozing off again when low muttering and cussing stir her awake.

 

When she looks up, Alex is sitting by the control panel, it’s various screens no longer connected to Netflix and now sharing a live feed of different maps and statistics. 

 

“ _ Fuck…” _ the boy cussed, as Nico rubbed at her eyes to clear away the drowsiness, “It can’t be…  _ motherfuckers!” _

 

“What are you fretting about this early in the morning?” the girl groans out, rising carefully on one elbow as to not wake up Karolina. 

 

Alex’s neck cracks with how quickly he turns to face her, still wearing what he’d worn the night before; an old band shirt and flannel pants with holes at the bottom. After realizing it was Nico, he turns back to the screen, taking a deep breath to control his breathing. 

 

“I thought I’d check out the tracking, since it’s supposed to update today.”

 

“Are they not in Yucatan?” Nico asks, fully rising from her spot on the rug, wincing when her neck throbs from the position it’d been stuck in. 

 

“Just check this out.” he ushers her closer to the table, the girl having to carefully step around Chase, that still snored peacefully. “This, over here is Yucatan, where they were two days ago.” he points to a random cluster of numbers and dots somewhere in a large map of Mexico, “but Old Lace is aaaall the way over here.” 

 

“You think Dale moved them? Maybe she escaped? We need to get to her fast if she’s just running around Mexico alone.”

 

“There’s no certain way of knowing” Alex shrugs. “but I’ve been running diagnosis on this place since I woke up, and I’m pretty sure it’s a military base.” 

 

“A  _ military base _ ?” Nico’s eyebrows shoot up to her scalp. Behind her, Chase starts stirring awake. “D-Does that mean...?”

 

“It’s a pretty educated guess…” Alex shrugs again, not really needing his friend to elaborate so he could understand the implication. 

 

Louder groans are heard from behind them, so both teens turn to see Chase stretching over the rug like a cat, “What are you guys talking about?”

 

Nico and Alex stare at each other for a second, considering what they should say, and then Nico sighs. 

 

“Well, Chase, it seems that the mexican authorities might have apprehended our dinosaur.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... ya'll ready for Old Lace???


	9. the independence of xavin, the xartanian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO sorry for not posting sooner. But if you're paying attention at any of the news recently, you'd know Brazil is a mess rn. I was in a preservation trip in Amazonas (the district that houses most of the amazon) with my other biology graduates when things started burning. My team wasn't in the heart of it but we still tried our best to help, which means now that i'm back home, I'm EXHAUSTED. 
> 
> Really, ya'll. If you can help, please do! There are a lot of people trying their best but they could use a lot of help! 
> 
> I really appreciate the patience, and hope you all haven't given up on this story.

“Come on, everyone, get your stuff, we gotta go!” Chase spurs them frantically, standing on top of the long stairs that lead out of the leapfrog for better access,  to make sure all came in.

 

“Coming!” Karolina sings out, hurriedly brushing golden hair with one hand and balancing at least five bags with the other. 

 

“ _ Why _ are you taking ten bags? We’re rescuing a dinosaur not attending the MET.” (the boy admittedly hadn’t known what the gala was before moving into the hostel, but it was Nico’s most favorite yearly guilty pleasure, and all the teens had been subjected to at least several hours of it) 

 

“Oh no, two are mine, the other three are Ni-” 

 

“I need my weapons, Stein!” Nico comes down the stairs, skipping steps with her dark, heavy boots. Once on the landing, the brunette hooks a few of the bags to herself and rises over her tippy toes to give her girlfriend a kiss to the cheek, “thank you, love” 

 

The smug look Karolina sends Chase as Nico goes into the ship with her luggage can only be dampened by the significant red lipstick stain that has formed on her cheek. Along with the fact Leslie comes hushing from the kitchen with a pile of multi-colored lunch boxes. 

 

“Don’t forget your lunch, children!” she calls after them, handing a  _ Back to the Future  _ themed one to Alex as he hurried past her with his backpack, “I cut yours in triangles, Karrie, just as you liked it.” 

 

“Thanks, mom…” Karolina deadpans, taking the  _ Polly Pocket  _ lunch box and shoving it under her arm, Leslie then walking towards the ship to give Nico’s lunch and Chase’s. 

 

“Molly, I swear to God we’re leaving you behind!” Chase yells from the ship’s entrance towards the open second floor. 

 

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” the fifteen year old slides down the steps, carrying probably more bags than Nico and Karolina combined. Chase seems to consider saying something but then just sighs, motioning for the girl to walk past him inside the tall, imposing vehicle.

 

The blonde stays by the entrance, looking around nervously for the Xartanian that was now part of their group. Karolina wishes she could make everyone happy, all the time. But a part of her had already accepted that having the extraterrestrial assist on this mission when everyone seems to be so out of themselves, was maybe not a good idea. 

 

She plans on revealing what she’s found about Jonah while they’re away, and it’d be best to keep possible problems to the minimum.

 

They’re already good enough at riling each other up on their own. 

 

Also, her mom can’t possibly stay alone while nearly nine months pregnant. Or take a trip down to Mexico and help them invade a military base. 

 

Chase sends her a look from the metal arching that leads inside, then turns, giving her a few minutes to wait alone. He’d been the one to ask her the night before, if she could talk to the Xartanian; even said, very surely, that  _ “you’re the only person they’ll listen too.” _ . And Karolina knows it’s true, had even thought so herself before.

 

Doesn’t mean she wants to be the one to crush the other teen’s ambitions to accompany them on their missions. 

 

That’s why the blonde nearly changes her mind when Xavin skips by to join the others, small backpack of essentials in toe. She ends up stopping them anyway, trying to swallow the part of her that’s yelling about taking advantage of her alien friend’s unparalleled devotion.

 

She most definitely did not  _ ask _ to be dealing with any of this. 

 

“I’m sorry, Xavin, but you have to stay.” the blonde declares solemnly. 

 

“Karolina, I came  _ all  _ the way from my galaxy so I could protect you.” the Xartanian insists, frowning at the interruption “Is there anything else that needs discussing? I thought you understood why I came here,  _ finally _ , after we talked of your father. That I came here to protect you” 

 

“I understand that,”

 

“Then why won’t you accept my protection?” Xavin asks, clearly frustrated with all the unfamiliar actions the blonde is taking. 

 

Karolina huffs slightly in annoyance, her nostrils flaring as she sucks in a sharp breath to calm herself, “See, Xavin…  I don’t  _ need  _ your protection, but I  _ do  _ need your help. And you’ve already helped more than you could ever imagine” she assures, and doesn’t miss how it makes the other teen’s chest fill with pride “But right now it’s my mom, and the hostel, who need your protection.” 

 

“Then why didn’t you say it sooner, my beloved?” the Xartanian asks as if it’s the most astonishing thing in the entire universe, their free hand canting up in a broad gesture. “You should know I take pride in assuring your family’s utmost safety! I’ll gladly ensure for your parent’s well-being while you conquer our dreadful human enemies-” 

 

“Yeah, that…” 

 

Karolina sighs. She’s done what she had to; and just as expected, Xavin does not seem at all afflicted with her request. The blonde doesn’t think they’ll ever show contempt towards her, no matter what’s been done. She reaches down for her bag, and moves to board the ship, head hanging low with guilt. 

 

Then, just as hastily, changes her mind and turns back around swiftly. 

 

“Xavin, as your friend…” Karolina doesn’t miss the other teen’s eyes lighting up at the word, “I really hope you’re doing all this because you truly  _ want to _ , you know? Not because of me, or- or some ancient prophecy.” 

 

Xavin frowns, “But why would I ever want to do  _ that _ ?” they quip back, genuinely fishing for an answer. 

 

“And just go aimlessly about life as everyone else? It must be a horrible treason, to have my story meticulously crafted by The Sisters of Fate, only for me to throw it to the wind like some eighth century  _ rehíalian _ ?” the words are surprised, nearly frantic, as if such thoughts could never even momentarily pass through the Xartanian’s mind unprompted. 

 

“I cannot, and you should know that.” Xavin continues solemnly, forcibly, voice heightening in tone, like a young child trying to convince their parents they  _ did not  _ just write all over the walls with permanent marker. “I’ve been given my path,  _ our  _ path, laid down my feet for me to walk across, Karolina. And the plan of the Cosmos is flawless, if we can only meet it’s desires, then the perfect life will be ours.”

 

 “Maybe it will.” Karolina nods, and she almost wants, once again, not to elaborate any further. 

 

Because it does sound nice. 

 

The idea of having your steps already planned for you, your future drawn onto the pages of an ageless, wisdom-filled book. The same an elder might read to you from the side of the bed. Your mind, still too young to comprehend what dangerous, heroic odyssey the stars have awarded your otherwise aimless existence. 

 

Just that you’ll meet it easily. Find victory in the eye of ineffable evil a thousand times over. If, and only  _ if _ , you’re smart enough to listen to them, thoroughly and diligently, without question. 

 

However, then Karolina tries to imagine the crushing, suffocating weight that rests precariously over her young shoulders having been settled upon them when even younger. 

 

She imagines it being there from the time she was born, hazed over every memory like bouts of smoke inside a beehive. 

 

Until all there was were the will of the stars, too big and powerful and all-knowing to be cast aside in lieu of a little girl’s feelings.

 

And it’s  _ sad _ .

 

The blonde can’t help but not want that to continue taking entirely over her friend’s life. Anyone deserves better than that. Better than complete brain-washing, even if for a good cause. 

 

“You should still look for what you want, too.”

 

“What I want?” 

 

“Yeah, not the stars or the prophecy or whatever.” Karolina explains, and she can see Molly and Nico across the windshields, fighting for the last blueberry muffin. “You’re welcome here, Xavin, with us.” she assures, “but I wonder if that’s really what you desire, or if it’s what you  _ would  _ desire if you had other options.”

 

Xavin quirks their head to the side, eyes going glassy over a random cream wall behind the blonde. They give no signs of movement for a few minutes, but for the slight opening and closing of their mouth, the pondering of words a lot more complicated than anticipated. Karolina is about to pierce through the silence when they finally speak up, “Is that why you’re happy? Because you didn’t know of the prophecy?” 

 

Karolina wants to say she’s not happy. Not entirely at least. It’s honestly funny that the Xartanian would think so. Also would be quite cruel of her, to lead the other teen into believing happiness comes from something as simple as free will. But it’s also not the question. 

 

The question is  _ why  _ is she happy, not  _ if _ . 

 

And if there is any reason the blonde was ever happy, for all the years before she knew of Jonah, or PRIDE, she would say it could be that one, along a handful of others. Karolina resents that life now, but she also can’t imagine not having lived it, just as it was. She can’t imagine not having at least those years of carefree, boundless childhood. 

 

She also can’t say that, not without feeling like she’s gloating.  

 

“I specifically enjoyed not being afraid my dear old absent dad would elicit the Apocalypse  _ with a capital A  _ and kill all my friends _. _ ” Karolina jokes instead. The xartanian chuckles lightly at that, and the blonde feels proud that she’s gotten such a spontaneous sound out of the alien. “I guess what I mean is: if we’re together on this, - and apparently we very much are, - you should still be happy. Stay here because you want to, you know? Help me because you want to.” 

 

“I think I understand.” Xavin nods, eyes still a little lost in their own thoughts. “It shall give me plenty to consider in your absence.” 

 

Karolina agrees happily, glad she’s gotten further than the teen’d honestly expected to get, “Good. You should think about it.”

 

Just then, Chase shoves his head out of the ship, searching around for them before locating Karolina. “Come on, Karo, we gotta go if we wanna get to Mexico today!”

 

“Coming!” Karolina quips back, grabbing her bag and turning for the entrance, where her mom had been quietly watching.

 

“Are you really sure you want to go, sweetie?” Leslie asks, worriedly, while her daughter approaches.

 

“It’s alright, mom, I’ll be back before you know it, I promise” 

 

She clutches the girl’s cheek, searching into her blue eyes. Then, without warning, tears cloud the older woman’s gaze and she’s nodding wetly. 

 

“Alright, Karrie.” Leslie lets her hand down and pats the teen awkwardly on the shoulder, seemingly not sure of their intimacy level now they were together again.

 

The air is whacked out of her lungs, however, when her daughter wraps the other woman in a stronghold, made slightly uncomfortable by the big protuberance between them. It only happens for a moment before Karolina is pulling back, with the same brooding, pensive look in her eyes that’s become entirely too familiar to Leslie since her daughter came back from the garage. 

 

“Now, come on,” the redhead urges her on, reaching to smear away the small spot of red lipstick smudged onto the side of Karolina’s face, “Go get your friends, I’m actually starting to miss that wretched reptile.”

  
  


***

  
  


The Leapfrog in it’s entirety is probably the size of six or seven trucks smashed together into one.

Chase had preemptively separated the machine into four compartments of different sizes when he designed it; they’d even been catalogued around different colors and numbered on the paper, as a way of better organizing what went where. Which was wildly necessary, specially with an increasingly bigger assembly team.   

 

Molly, however, after walking into the finished product for the first time, instantly deemed numbers and colors too impersonal for their machine. Which Chase was certainly upset about (“ _ Dang it, Molly! It’s a first generation ultrasonic spacecraft not some suburban lady’s dream house!” _ ), as the girl analized every inch of of silvery, glimmering iron walls, before coming to the conclusion they should each be named, in order of entrance: basement (used to be red), living room (blue), bedrooms (yellow) and attic (white). 

 

Those surely sounded like madly unassuming names for the quarters of their new vehicle, (made of nothing but rounded edges and unyielding cold metal, instead of the steadiness and warmth of a wooden and concrete home, rooted onto the side of a peaceful street) but it stuck as quick as anything could. Especially to Nico, who was not about to listen to Alex and Chase yell colors at each other for extended periods of time.

 

It could seriously ruin art for her. Maybe even colored movies. 

 

The one she likes the least is the basement, which unfortunately is where Chase also decided to install the main and only entrance apart from two emergency hatches. The compartment itself opens on the stomach of the frog, in between it’s robotic legs, and is supposed to serve as a control room for some of the systems, with it’s narrow hallway and loud metal floors that echo loudly when anyone steps over them. The walls are covered in random glass doors, exposing guts of electric systems beyond. Some in the form of miscellaneous screens that take up the whole wall; others, random multi colored wires and buttons of all shapes and sizes. 

 

The screens, mostly black, blink almost dizzyingly fast, with stats and levels and coordinates, feeding onto the cacophony that grows along the incessant light of the buttons, and even currents of white electricity, running through sheer wires. Nico came out of there with a mild headache every time, and was surprised the boys could watch it all happen for hours if they could. 

  
  


***

Past the basement, and in the main compartment, (or the living room),  is where incessant movement give places to clean, white walls, paired to slightly darker floors. Everything is still incredibly organized, since no one had yet spent a lot of time in there.

 

Which is surely about to change as the living room serves a lot of purposes. More than any compartment of the ship. 

 

Ahead from the three short steps that separate it from the basement, there’s a small kitchen, equipped with cabinets, very narrow counter space and a tiny fridge. By it’s side, a booth of comfy grey benching and small rectangular table; sizeable flat screen TV mounted on the wall behind it. 

 

It’s there that Nico spends most of their trip to Mexico. Chin pressed over both knees as she sits on the table with Molly and plays round after round of  _ Uno _ , snacking on some pretzels Supergirl (or whatever,  _ whom _ ever, the hell is the  _ L-Project _ ) had stocked their pantry with.

 

Facing the table, there’s a square pen lined with thick black futton and random multi-colored pillows they’d found in dingy thriftstores, meant to serve both as a couch for TV watching and a bed for Old Lace. Now, merely occupied by random bags and Nico’s assorted weaponry, that she’d selected as a precaution. The goth even made a protection charm, that she and her fifteen year old friend glued to the ceiling with duct tape and thread.

 

It kept hitting the window behind their sofa repeatedly, nothing but dull, low sound against glass. Not enough to be annoying, but just to barely remind them of the passing of time.   

 

Beyond the living room, and crammed to the very end of the ship, Alex decided to hole himself up in the bedrooms, which were simply four bunks separated into two tiny rooms with a small half-bathroom in between, so small they barely served so people could stand in between the beds and access theirs. The boy, now having his tracking mission successfully come to an end, gave way to tiredness just like the rest of them. 

 

Even Karolina and Chase, who hadn’t uttered more than five words a day combined for the month and a half that took them to build the Leapfrog, now hum lowly along with some tune or another.   

 

Nico can’t help but watch her girlfriend from the corner of her eyes, to where she is all the way in the attic, (a.k.a the flying compartment). Separated from the rest of the ship by two broad steps. The blonde sits on the co-captain chair, installed closer to the panel for optimized driving, with both her bare feet propped on the dashboard, flipping half-heartedly through one of Chase’s electrical engineering magazines. 

 

At some point, the two even engage in a game of jellybean war, aiming the treats at each other’s mouths and counting the score in a ripped up piece of newspaper. Molly abandons Nico halfway through  _ Monopoly _ to join them, and takes advantage of a closer proximity to the drivers to ask if they’re close every twelve minutes. 

 

It gets louder, all three laughing and yelling happily at each other, but Nico merely crawls into the futton, laying calmly to rest her heavy eyes. She watches as sunlight filters through the windows, making so that the crystals in her charm cast blueish specs all over the ceiling.

 

Nico’s sure nothing is perfect yet. Mr. and Mrs Wilder are still waiting to see if they’ll end up spending an extended amount of time at a penitentiary. Gert hasn’t been rescued, and neither has her dinosaur. Karolina still has her quiet moments, where it seems like she’s either in deep thought, or trying her very best not to think at all. 

 

And Nico? Even without the nightmares, there is still a bad omen. A dark, twisting feeling. Always right there at the back of her head, as if ready to encompass her in terrible, dreadful darkness.

 

She’s sure it will, at some point. 

 

But after  _ everything _ . The heavy atmosphere that’d settled over the hostel, when they brought her back from Chase’s garage. How none of them seemed like themselves. It almost seemed like physically putting it all behind had given them some of that light, innocent energy back. The one that PRIDE managed to strip away from their own children like it was nothing. 

 

Maybe the bad parts could all stay in Los Angeles. Or be scattered along the way to Mexico as to not find their way back to the hostel.

 

Nico is not sure. Right now, all she’s sure of is that is  _ feels _ like a new beginning. 

 

***

 

She must have dozed off, because when her eyes open, there is nothing outside the window but deep blue darkness, and Karolina is kneeling by the sofa, golden hair brushed into a tight ponytail as Molly peers over her shoulder anxiously. 

 

When the brunette looks up, her girlfriend smiles openly, the dazed, overjoyed kind that Nico got used to being only for her. “We’re here.” she says, and pulls onto the other girl’s hand toward the front. All three shuffle to where Chase and Alex are attentively peering over the window to the extensive compound beneath, Nico still rubbing her eyes to cast away drowsiness. 

 

“The ship’s cloaked.” Chase states,  and Nico doesn’t miss the slow blue glow that seeps from the bottom and top of the walls, alerting to the ship’s cloaking system being in use. The boy leans on his seat and presses a purple button on the dash, which promptly makes so the entire floor of the ship disappears, zapping across in light before gaping the space beneath their feet to the somber, obscure emptiness. 

 

Molly slightly jumps up in surprise, but aside from that, no one reacts, Chase having shown them pretty much every gadget available on the ship before they took flight the first time. Underneath them, there’s only miles upon continuous miles of desert, interrupted only by the odd graying cacti, or a lonely owl, flying vertiginously close to their feet.  The full moon above casts silvery white light over dry soil, rinsing the whole landscape in dreary gray.

 

The only edification they can see for very long is in the form of an enormous, square compound, shaped by numerous rectangular, humourless buildings parallel to each other; with a bigger, taller one right in the middle. All of them enveloped in high, metal fencing, with loops of barbed wire at the top. There are some lights on, pointing to the fact that the base is probably occupied, but not enough that it seems like it’s fully populated, most outside lighting dimmed, presumably for the night shift. 

 

“So this is where they brought Old Lace…” Nico comments, all the others too busy observing the scene beneath their feet. 

 

“Doesn’t seem like there are a lot of people, but we don’t know if there’s underground cells. They could all be under the Earth.” Karolina observes, having spent a lot of her free time while Nico showered googling military bases.

 

Chase is using an X-Ray scanner to run over all buildings, data coming back into the computer in the form of blackish apexes, edges and lines that mimic walls and floors. Anything dangerous such as guns and knifes glowed red, highlighted from the bleak background, whilst the silhouettes of people and dogs were colored light, neon orange. Everything’s coming in smoothly, the mainframe scanning building after building and beeping green after each one, until it reaches the last and biggest one, and the whole screen glows a red X. 

 

“Yup, there it is. Lined with lead. We can only assume Old Lace is in there.” Chase determines, typing away at different commands. 

 

 “How are we gonna get her out?” Molly quizzes, not letting her eyes fall away from the assortment of buildings beneath. 

 

“I’ve got a plan.” Alex responds, turning from the landscape to face all four others and gesturing for them to approach.

 

“We’re not leaving without Lace.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope even Xavolina shippers can appreciate what I'm trying to accomplish with Xavin. I don't want them to have any sort of romantic relationship with Karolina, not only because I'm a die hard Deanoru fan, but because I think they deserve more than being a plot point for Karolina, which they have been for pretty much all comic runs AND the tv show. I wanna give them their own desires and thoughts we might not get to see. 
> 
> Chapter 10 is probs coming tomorrow if I don't sleep right through it. 
> 
> Hope ya'll liked it.


	10. be gay, do crimes, take over the military

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's FINALLY taking off, people!
> 
> I hope you payed attention to the last chapters bc next one i'm just gonna start throwing references around like the freaking saturday night live

Chase lands the ship a few miles away. All of them but Alex run out the main door towards the imposing structure of the base. They separate along the way, Molly first and then Karolina and Chase, leaving Nico to sneak around the security guards by herself. She’d gotten a good look at them. There were two, and both sat nonchalantly inside the cabin, leaning over a tiny TV that loudly broadcasted a soccer game, oblivious to the teenager hiding right outside the cabin. 

 

Which isn’t exactly easy, since the whole thing’s made of windows, from above the waist to the ceiling, and the only way she can remain unseen is to kneel with her dark, long dress. Some might say it isn’t optimal heist couture, but she really doesn’t like armor, or the protective corsets her mom used to fit her and Amy into, so her usual wardrobe it’d have to be. 

 

_ “Molly’s approaching.”  _ Alex warns in the girl’s ear piece. 

 

Almost instantly, she sees the fifteen year old appear from what had previously been a dry desert road, no cars daring to cross it this late. Or at all, since the road itself cuts straight away from the main highway and is presumably for exclusive military use. Now, Molly  limps uncomfortably across it, towards the big light post that peers over the cabin, bathing a small circle around it in harsh, white light and everything further in even mustier darkness than it should have been.   

 

The girl has dust heavily covering her face and clothes, caking over her hair until it covers dark curls in a thin layer, one hand snuck behind her back. They’d probably have to throw those clothes away, or at least quarantine them until they’re back in Hollywood, but it’d do for the mission. She sends Nico a look, and the older teenager sprints across the front of the building, ducking behind the corner, by the door, just as the security guards notice Molly outside. 

 

“Mira!” one of them grunts out, calling for his colleague’s attention with a sound slap to the wrist. The other man, who was previously ferociously enthralled with the game taking place in their TV, looks up outside the window, eyesight straining to ensure what he’s really seeing. 

 

“Es una chica? Que hace una chica aquí?” the man asks confusedly, standing up and walking to the door, just as Molly reaches it, _“_ Qué estás haciendo aquí? Este es no lugar para niñas!” the man asks, chastising her for being at such a desolate place, so late. 

 

“Ayuda! Me perdí de mi mami! Por favor, ayuda!” Molly pleads, giving them her best helpless child impersonation. Nico still watching from her spot by the door, as the man sends his colleague a look, and the other nods curtly. 

 

“De donde vienes?” he asks, stepping through the door to the outside. “Tú mamá tiene un teléfono?”

 

“Sí! Lo tengo aquí, acércate!” Molly quips, gesturing for him to come closer. Which he does, for a minute, before becoming suspicious of the young girl, who’s hand was still behind her back. He stops in his tracks, halfway out the doorframe, one palm going to the hip where his gun rested. 

 

“Qué estás escondiendo?” the guard asks, and Molly shakes her head frantically. 

 

“Nada.” the girl responds, but it only spurs the man into gripping his weapon tighter. “No estoy escondiendo nada.” he sends the other guard a look, and suddenly the man is reaching for the telephone over the table, presumably to ask for reinforcements. 

 

_ “Now, Molly.”  _ Alex prompts, over the wire. 

 

He barely has to finish before Molly is smashing the piece of wood she’d been hiding right over his head, a dull, heavy  _ thud _ echoing through the desert, leaving the man to go completely limp and fall unconsciously to the floor. Not enough to kill him, or create any sort of lasting damages, but it’d give them a good few minutes before he woke. 

 

“Que…” the remaining security guard breathes out, telephone momentarily forgotten. When he looks up, his colleague is no longer there, nothing is in fact, but empty desert. 

 

He steps out of the cabin to investigate, tentatively, but before the man can locate Molly, who’d hid behind a wall, (pulling his unconscious colleague along,) Nico jumps up from her hiding spot, punching him straight across the stomach. The guard wails and curls around his own body in pain while the sports announcer belts rapidly in spanish from the television, Molly using of that distraction to punch him right in the face, as hard as she could, also sending the other man to the floor. 

 

_ “Yes. Awesome!”  _ Alex praises, as Molly kisses her injured knuckles tenderly.  _ “Get their cards, we’ll need them in a second”  _

 

“Right ahead of you.” the fifteen year old replies, bending down to retrieve the small piece of plastic, strapped onto the side of the man’s belt. It’s a fairly simple item, with barely anything in it but initials for whatever branch of Mexican government they were messing with and maybe a dozen random numbers. 

 

“We have it. Where are the others?” Nico asks, studying the still empty area around them, with her back turned to the big metal gates of the base that loom over them, vengefully tall, like a soldier standing for battle.

 

“They-” Alex begins, but then they’re all silenced by the distinct crunching of steps, coming from right behind the girls’s heads. 

 

“Are right here.” Karolina whispers onto Nico’s neck, hot breath ghosting over tan skin,  making so the smaller teen jumps in place, hand flying to the staff strapped to her back. 

 

“Fuck, K. You scared me!” the brunette pants, Chase letting out short little giggles from behind, hiding his mouth with a fistigone-d hand. 

 

“Sorry.” her girlfriend quips back, coyly, but there’s nothing coy about her playful smirk, or the mischievous glint over her blue eyes, “we just had a really good opportunity.”

 

_ “Come on, guys, we only have until they wake up.”  _ Alex hurries the other teens and they spring into action, searching around the gates for a smaller personnel entrance.  _ “Remember, when you go inside, turn right and go straight until you see the main building.”  _

 

“Copy that.” Chase whispers into the intercom, just as they find a narrow, dark entrance, with a small keypad installed to it’s side in a pathway that leads away from the security cabin. Molly swipes the stolen card into it’s sliver, where it computes for a second before glowing green, and the door clicks open. 

 

They all hurry inside, careful not to step too hard on the naked gravel underneath. Beyond the walls, there’s a juncture between two large alleyways, formed in neat lines of sizeable buildings, all bigger than containers yet smaller than sizeable houses, built in worn out gray concrete, with nothing covering it’s walls but a small door and two slim windows on each of it’s sides. Most of them are dark, tipping the fact there’s no one inside, or that they might be asleep, but some gleam to the outside with bright, artificial lighting, carried outside, in some places by laughter and talking, others by simple clanking and the usual living noises of people moving and going about their nights. 

 

Dim, orange light illuminates round slivers of the streets ahead of them from the few lamp posts that work, casting the rest of the space in hefty darkness. There’s a soccer field somewhere, as they can hear the sprinklers spinning merrily from where they stand, pressed onto the side of the big front wall in mind-numbing silence. Somewhere in the narrow alley ahead, one of the posts blinks feebly over three lonely jeeps, parked in sucession. 

 

_ “Go behind those cars! You have to be fast.”  _ Alex whispers,

 

They run quickly for a few alleys, stopping after every barrack so that Chase can stick his neck out and check for guards before ushering them out of the shadows. Finally, they reach the main street. Larger than all the others, it begins right from the gate they could see outside, and cuts through the entire middle of the base, interrupted only by the other alleyways that ran horizontally. By the end, it's the biggest building in the whole thing. Square, tall and all-imposing, it sports slender windows, different from the tiny cubes the others had, and a nice squared door.

 

They walk by men snoring, playing cards and eating. By big trucks, army green jeeps and random supply crates, each organized in a fine line on the sides of the concrete sidewalk with others of their own. Their feet crunch over gravel, crouching not to be seen from the windows, the noise masked only by the desert's violent, rippling wind that make the windows shake on their panes and Nico's hair whip wildly around her face, nearly springing out of her tight braids.

 

It looks like there'll be no one, from how silent everything is outside the barracks. Far away, in the building, lighting can be seen from the windows, but there are no movement or sounds.

 

They're on the seventh alleyway, hunched under a tiny window and waddling slowly with their knees bent, so close to the main building it looms over them, when Molly reaches in for Chase's shoulder, calling the boy's attention.

 

"Do you think there's an-"

 

" _ Shhhhhhh _ " Nico prompts, hurriedly, from behind the fifteen year old.

 

A familiar crush of feet over gravel comes from the alley right ahead. Too heavy to be an animal, and accompanied by the familiar technological buzzing of a walkie-talkie. A gravely, male voice says something in Spanish. Then another responds and there are more footsteps.

 

"There's tw-" Molly tries again, and this time Nico lunges forward and wraps both her hands around the younger girl's mouth.

 

Just as she does, a step resounds right by Chase's ear, who's the first in line. He can guess the heaviness of the soldier's boots from how near the man is standing. He’s tall and heavily armed, a large assault rifle strapped to the side of his pants. The soldier steps straight onto the main road from the alleyway. 

 

Chase has to lean back so his breathing doesn't hit his leg.

 

If he'd just look to the right side, they'd be caught, and there wasn't exactly a plan for getting caught. Except maybe trying to fight their way out of a heavily prepared military camp. Which wasn't going to be pretty, especially without Old Lace and with their numbers down.

 

But by some miracle. Some otherworldly occurrence from the hands of destiny, his head bends to the opposite side and then ahead, to the peaceful street of barracks that tremble softly under the wind. The soldier's helmet seems to badly restrict his peripheral vision, which is what ultimately keeps them concealed, along with the heavy darkness. 

 

He turns back around to his colleague, who still stands on the alley.

 

"No estoy viendo nada." He quips back to the other soldier, who hums out an affirmative noise. The first man's footsteps are heard again, leading him further and further away, until they can barely hear it.

 

"Te dije que no era nada!" The other one answers, good naturedly "Estamos perdiendo el juego!"

 

A second later, loud announcing comes from the other guard's phone, and Nico's hand falls from Molly's mouth, all standing in silence for a second,  _ "Oof, that was close" _ Alex says through the earpiece  _ "Hurry up, you guys, the guards are gonna wake up any minute and alert the others." _

 

Chase peeks his head out into the occupied alley and stoops back right after, "They're watching the game." the boy whispers as low as he can, hoping it'll get muffled by the whistling winds.

 

"How are we gonna go without them hearing?" Nico questions, hands itching for the katanas stuffed into her backpack. She's the second to last in line, with Karolina right behind.

 

"We could go around the other barracks, try to get into the building from the back, it's gonna take longer but-" Chase begins explaining his plan, but is cut off by Karolina.

 

"We  _ don't _ have time."

 

"Well, than what-"

 

"I'll fly you." The blonde decides, nodding to herself, "Xavin has been trying to teach me how to do it without glowing. I haven't done it a lot but I can do it."

 

"Karolina, if your lights come out or you drop one of us..." Chase whispers, gravely.

 

"We don't have time, Chase, it's now or never." Nico asserts from her spot, "Karolina is not gonna _ drop  _ us" she says like it's the craziest idea the boy's ever had, and Karolina ducks her head down to hide the small smile that forms there. 

 

"You go first then." The boy prompts, and Nico throws him an incredulous look.

 

"Not that I have a problem with that, but I really don't appreciate you bossing me around just because I'm her girlfriend."

 

"Not because you're her girlfriend." Chase's eyes roll, "Because I know  _ for sure _ she's not gonna drop you. And we need to see how steady she can go before I take my chances. I'm way heavier than you."

 

_ "Hurry up, people, we're not even in the main building yet."  _ Alex warns, nervously.

 

"Shut up, Alex." Nico hisses, standing up and turning to Karolina, who instinctively follows her movements, reaching out a hand for the brunette.

 

"You're gonna have to hold real tight." The half-majesdanian warns, and Nico steps in to snake both her arms around the other girl's shoulders. Karolina's going to grip steadily around her waist.

 

"Please don't drop me after I gave Chase shit for it." Nico breathes into her ear, and Karolina chuckles very lightly, eyes closing so she can concentrate on finding her power.

 

"I would never." The tall blonde guarantees. She's shaking a little from adrenaline, and her hands sweat against Nico's shirt, as they bunch up fabric in between slender fingers. The sounds are too distracting, loud screaming coming from the soldier's phone. Steady snoring, from the barracks right behind their heads.

 

She's thinking maybe it won't work. It rarely did when she was  _ practicing _ . Karolina can still hear the well-intended frustration in Xavin’s voice when they couldn’t force non-light flying and the healing hands out of the blonde. Add that to her ever-growing anxiety over Jonah and she had already given up before even starting.

 

They’d say,  _ “round up your energy, let it overtake you. But concentrate on keeping it inside, no matter how over-powering it feels.” _ . The blonde would then think: this sounds easy, I was secretly in love with my best friend for most of my life and hid it just  _ fine _ , why wouldn’t I be able to do it now? 

 

But it was way harder than it sounded. Just like being in love with Nico, Karolina felt as though she might go insane from trying to keep her lights inside, with how they’d burn into the inside of her skin and skull and  _ hurt like a bitch _ . Yes, exactly like all those years, watching the raven-haired teen show interest in others that weren’t her. Her hands would shake as if they were meant to be together, as if Karolina even attempting to push down their connection or try to conceal it might just end up killing her. Like  _ something else _ , bigger and stronger than she was, kept pushing and pushing on her to fail. 

 

 Until all she could think was  _ confess, confess, confess... _

 

Karolina wants to face-palm herself. There’s no way she can muster the power necessary to fly without exploding light everywhere just like there was no way she wouldn’t have eventually kissed Nico. And it was plain stupid of her to think she could do it  _ here  _ in the middle of a heist, when she hadn’t even been able to do it at the hostel. God, it’s been a while since she ever felt this  _ stupid- _

Nico leans forward and nuzzles on to the side of her neck, "Karo?" Karolina gets a good whiff of her expensive lemograss shampoo, that she’s been using for so long it just became  _ undoubtedly  _ Nico. The blonde’s pulse slows. "C'mon.  _ Fly _ ."

 

Like a piece of a puzzle falling into place, Karolina feels a strong wave of power overtake her, warm her blood until she’s slightly dizzy. 

 

And they're flying.

 

Karolina can't hold back the happy squeal that escapes her lips as they thrust up gracefully in the air. Her stomach flips, but it feels _ so  _ good. Thankfully, the men don't notice it, now that the wind is picking up and their game is also.

 

"You did it! You're flying!" Nico exclaims, smiling widely.

 

"I  _ know _ !" Karolina chuckles. She hadn't felt that way when Xavin tried their hand at teaching her, on the few days before she decided dealing with her newfound talents was worse than ignoring it. She didn't even float more than a few inches from the floor.

 

Now she can’t imagine not doing it. Like when she fount out she could glow. 

 

And once again, just like it felt to be kissed back by her girlfriend. 

 

Maybe it's the sense of accomplishment, or the warm desert winds blowing over them. Maybe it's how high they're getting, slowly but steadily away from the ground. But she's ecstatic. Happier,  _ freer _ , than she's been in a long time.

 

Karolina doesn't even notice they're still moving until Nico's arms tighten around her neck, short black nails digging half-crescent shapes into pale shoulders.

 

"Don't go too high, they'll see us."

 

The blonde looks down at Molly and Chase, who them watch warily, "Oh. Right."

 

Landing's slightly less graceful. Nico has to jump first and grip onto Karolina's elbows to steady her. They're giggling and panting lowly from it, though. And Chase deems the short flight enough proof of her ability. She flies all of them slowly, using her sun-powered energy to lift Chase, and then all that was left was the short walk to the main building. 

 

They take it in bouts, more carefully than before. And soon the teens are standing right by it. 

 

_ “Left side. I see stairs.”  _ Alex directs, and they follow his instructions to find a slender, metal ladder, installed to the side of the building. 

 

Once on top of the building, the boy also guides them to a hatch that Molly has to force open, the object releasing a semi-loud squeak of protest. Underneath, they can see a broad hallway, suspended over the ground, the floor made of black metal and littered with small circles that, whilst allowing small peeks of the dark room beneath it, gave near to nothing away. 

 

Karolina floats down first and helps the others, so that no one lands too hard on the metal. Once standing in the passage, they look over the railing to find it’s someone’s office, simple and empty but for a desk, three chairs and a bookcase. The hallway goes over it’s walls, however, and soon they’re tiptoeing along them. Lots of dark rooms go by, so many that they lose count. All so alike each other it’s not even worth it. 

 

Until they reach long, narrow stairs, leading to a platform made of the same material, where lights shine from ahead and underneath, beyond where they stood.

 

“Wow.” Molly pants. 

 

They’ve reached a giant, round room. It’s semi-lit by a couple lights that line the passages to each sides, and the desk lamps of the few workers still there, scattered along two lines of several desks. The ceilings are unbelievably tall, probably three stories or more, hence why they haven’t been spotted from the convenient platform. In the furthest right corner of the circle, there’s a passageway, taller than a normal door but not by a lot. 

 

Standing by it is a guard, slightly dozing off from his duty. Molly strains to see inside, searching for the familiar dinosaur. 

 

“There! It’s Lacey!” the girl points and all turn to look at the small sliver that can be seen inside the room. There’s a tall cage, with iron bars, and for a second, Nico is sure she catches a glimpse of the daenonycus’ snout ring. She waits more and sees her tail, the highly recognizable pattern on her back. 

 

It’s definetly their dinosaur.

 

“What do we do now?” Chase studies their enemies carefully. 

 

“I mean…” Nico chimes in from her spot, “we fight them, right?”

 

“If we do, we can’t let any of them leave.” Karolina responds. “If they alert the base, we’ll have three hundred armed men waiting by the doors.” 

 

“There’s seven. I’m sure we can take them”

 

“I take the guard” Molly suggests, aggressively. 

 

Chase, Karolina and Nico stare at each other for a second, trying to silently discuss if this was a good idea. Molly is already shaking a little with pent up energy. 

 

“It’s our best bet.” Chase shrugs, finally. 

 

“Great!” Nico sings, ready for a fight. 

 

_ “Nico, remember, you can’t flare again, you’re our best bet if things go wrong. Be careful with using the staff too much.” _ Alex prompts from the earpiece.

 

“The staff is not even going to be needed” The girl says, elegantly reaching into her bag and pulling out two shiny katanas that unsheath from their confines in an elegant flourish. “I’ve been cooped up in that cave way too long not to go ninja on those assholes.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a reminder that I work (very heavily) for praise, and also love CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, this fic is like 3-5k words per chapter, and I'm always needing extra motivation. So leave me a comment, I'm always answering to them!


	11. old lace for all, and all for old lace pt. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended up being almost 8k words long, so I decided it'd be best to split it in two. I'm sorry if you wanted gert on this one, she'll finally be amongst us in #12, which will be up tomorrow!
> 
> Love you people, 
> 
> Clara

Pilar’s been at the base since before lunch. She’d fought with her boyfriend on the phone before leaving, and promised herself not to text him from work. The woman’d gotten written up many times before for being on her phone. 

 

In her mind, they couldn’t exactly blame her. When Pilar joined the military, she was all wide-eyed, out of a small town, looking for excitement in the big city, but ended up doing security work in a musty room with a bunch of soldiers that could no longer fight, either because of old age or injury. Granted, she’d probably done that to herself, with all the slacking during her recruit training, but Pilar’s sure she’d have run those drills a thousand times faster if only she knew where the slow ones ended up. 

 

Of course, every once in a while something exciting would happen, like the dinosaur they found wandering around the desert the day before. It took a whole clip of tranquilizers before the animal was down, and for a couple of hours after it woke up, everyone was afraid it might tear through the bars and kill them all; Pilar thinks there’s something to be said about her job that she’d never had that much fun whilst working, even with the fear of death. 

 

Yet, there’s probably something  _ even bigger  _ to be said when not even a dinosaur could make it exciting after a couple of hours. That’s why the woman could barely hold off until eight P.M., still about four hours before she could go home, before texting Leone. 

 

_ “I don’t know why this is so important to you.”  _ her boyfriend exclaimed via text. Pilar’s hands rolling up in fists. Her cheeks going red with anger.

 

Truly, it isn’t  _ that  _ important.

 

They’d just been dating for over six years, with no sign the man might be thinking of proposing, and Pilar’s biological clock would soon start ticking.

 

Even her slutty friend who’d started dating  _ four years  _ after them was about to get married in the fall. But it really wasn’t  _ that  _ important. Of  _ course  _ not.  _ Just _ her lifelong dream of having a family, slipping through her fingers like she’d been trying to hold ice.

 

Can you catch the sarcasm?

 

_ “I don’t know why it’s so unimportant to you,”  _ she sends back, and considers leaving it at that but then keeps typing,  _ “Don’t you love me?”  _

 

_ Typing.  _ It says for a second before the small chatterbox goes quiet. Pilar knows she probably won’t get an answer until she goes home. 

 

Which isn’t going to be long. Even the guard that keeps an eye on the main door to the cage room is already nearly dozing off. The clock that rests over the main door shows it’s close to midnight. Under it and ahead of her desk are probably the only people in this whole base she could call friends, also mulling around with bored looks in their eyes. Amelia, a 40 year old who’d served enough in her youth to land a job as their team supervisor. And Eusebe, a young, burly man that walked around with a cane, from a severe injury to the leg he’d sustained a couple years before.   

 

“You alright, Pilar?” Amelia asks. Eusebe sending her a shy smile.

 

He’s dark-skinned, with dirty blonde hair and a boyish look to the glint in his eyes. She used to like him, after first coming here. Sometimes she guesses she still does, but he was engaged when she was single, and she’s dating now that he’s single. It’s not exactly practical.  

 

“Yup. I’m fine.” The woman responds. She looks at the clock. Eleven fifty five. Five minutes and they’re good to go. “You know, I think I’ll just-” Pilar rises from her spot, ready to leave early. The woman leans for her bag, hooking it around one shoulder and shoving bony fingers inside to search for discarded car keys, that she lost almost every day. 

 

But before the woman can look further... a low, echoed  _ clank _ , comes from the metal passageways above them. They’re old and probably installed for means of evacuation and supervision. Yet, Pilar doesn’t think anyone’s ever gone up there except the construction workers that built it. She knows there are stairs to it, somewhere in the building, but that might as well have been an urban legend, as she’d never seen them or met anyone who had.

 

“You hear that?” Eusebe asks. His colleague staring intently to the dark space above them. 

 

“I don’t hear anything.” Amelia shrugs. Pilar strains her eyes, searching for figures in pitch darkness. She’s  _ sure _ there’s something right  _ there. _ Hiding amongst the shadows.

 

Another  _ clank _ , lower this time. The woman gets a glimpse of blonde hair, the highly recognizable glimmer of a blade. “Guys, I think there’s something wro-”  

 

 Before she can finish, a group of darkly dressed figures bursts through the ceilings. 

 

One of them, an asian girl wielding two large swords, is coming straight for her.

 

She’s got a mouth of blood-red lips and a mischievous glint to bright eyes. Gloved hands squeezing the handles to her weapons. Painted lips shift away to show pearly white teeth in an almost innocent smile.

 

Pilar catches herself worrying about her assailant’s age. How fresh she looks, with all the evident purity, the unspoiledness, those things she knew the world was more than ready to gobble up faster than anyone could ever hide it. Even with the dark makeup and the weapons, it’s  _ there _ . 

 

So different, evident, pungent. And at the same time entirely fleeting,  _ ephemeral _ . Not even because of innocence’s usual perishable nature; how it’s usually right there and then gone along with the woes of life, no sure way that it could be detained for too long, because there was also no sure way to lose it. 

 

That, - the usual, lively loss of purity, the one that belonged to life like metamorphosis in a butterfly -  didn’t feel this…  _ dark.  _ Not even close. This was more like… like she had a terrible, evil force, looming over her shoulder.  _ Waiting  _ for it. 

 

It reminds her of vultures circling a dying animal. Spider-monkeys, that used to wander through her grandma’s backyard, in between the branches of the woman’s juicy acerola bushes. Her guava trees, spotted like the back of a cat. Most of the year there was nothing there to eat but they still came, waited patiently even as the fruits were still green. Pilar still remembers their faces, how longingly they stared at the empty plants. Even hungry, they never ate any before they were ripe. 

 

Her grandma always had to time it perfectly. Harvest some before the monkeys came. 

 

When they did, there was usually nothing left behind.

 

Pilar knows the girl is about to attack her, yet she still feels like warning her. This fresh-faced teenager that certainly’s got herself in way over her head. She really  _ should _ … as an adult. She even opens her mouth, when they’re halfway across from the ceiling. Maybe a meter above her head.

 

But that’s the last thing she does before everything goes black. 

 

It’s safe to say Pilar feels like an idiot for ever wanting her job to be more exciting. 

 

***

 

Nico takes the first one by means of blasting her rolly chair onto the floor under them, barely having time to roll away from the dull sound of the woman’s head hitting the floor, before Molly is flipping the tables behind her back, a loud blast sending the two other agents hurtling through space in a cloud of documents and office material. One breaks through an opposing window, exploding into an adjacent, empty room with a deafening eruption of tempered glass that cascades onto their feet. Karolina takes the one besides her, who’d been napping soundly, zapping her just as she’s waking up.

There’s two left and the guard. Chase blasts one of the agents with his fistigons, throwing the man’s body through the open exit into what he imagines is the main lobby of the building. The last worker stares at them, panicked, in the far left corner of the room, the guard standing right behind him with complete disbelief glowing in his dark eyes. 

 

For a second, Nico sees the agent’s trembling fingers hover over a red button in his desk. The teen’s eyes go wide. It has to be some sort of security button, with how it doesn’t match anything else on the table. She’s about to break through the entire computer with her swords, but Karolina seems to notice the movement before, as she plants both her hands over the metal table, Nico kicking the man’s chair away from the furniture just as it starts cackling and sizzling in pink and blue beams of electricity, the computer lamenting loudly, CD reader blasting off before the whole thing turns black in cackles that sound like a McDonald’s deep-fryer. 

 

The last agent goes flying, screeching down the small steps that separate the bull pen, - where the tables are located, - and passage to the rooms and doors around it. His back slams against the wall by the door where Chase’d just sent his co-worker through. That seems to wake the guard, who finally cocks his weapon up, ready to point it at Karolina. 

 

Before he can fire, Nico closes her eyes and concentrates on communicating with the staff that’s securely stored inside her backpack, “Jammed trigger.” she whispers out, and just as she does, the man presses on the weapon, ready to fire a shot, which prompts it to let out a small click, but no explosion.

 

He tries again. Nothing. The firearm is cast aside, and the man gets in position to fight them. The agent that’d had his computer ruined gets up and runs for the door. Karolina and Nico exchange a look, coming to stand besides each other. 

 

“Chase, get that one. Molly, get Lacey.” Nico orders, sheathing her swords back into their holsters. 

 

_ “Hey! You’re stealing my lines!”  _ Alex complains from the microphone. Chase runs after the panicked agent, Molly skidding into the room where they’d been keeping the dinosaur. 

 

The poor man is shaking a little. Nico almost feels bad about fighting him, but they can’t let anyone alert the rest of the base.

 

The guard changes stance and tries to punch the brunette in the face, only for the teen to duck and grab onto his arm, twisting it over his head, into his shoulder blades. He cries in pain and Nico kicks him on the back, the man falling into the spot his friend had been a second ago. Karolina is in perfect stance, her feet evenly parted to assure steadiness. It makes her wonder if the blonde kept going to taekwondo after Amy died. 

 

She’d only began going the summer Nico decided she wanted to go to Fight Camp. The teen remembers being so excited and eager to make new friends, only to arrive at another rigid, pristine, entitled place, filled with likewise masters and children. At the end of the day, it was really good that the blonde decided she wanted to go with, even if she wasn’t nearly as good as most of the people there. 

 

Karolina got good fast though - which shouldn’t be a surprise, with how athletic she’d always been, going to volley and soccer and tennis classes on the regular, - even if her desire to learn had mostly to do with the fact she really,  _ really  _ wanted to impress Nico. Now, as if to prove her ability, the guard rises, releasing an angry cry and advancing face first into Nico’s stomach, the smaller teen too surprised to defend herself, going harshly towards the floor, her back hitting it in an  _ oof. _ Her whole body aching from the forceful blow to her spine. 

 

Karolina hooks her arms around the guard’s shoulders, twisting forcefully until he’s standing again and facing her. His eyes going wide in shock. Before he can even really move, however, the girl administers a precise, solid punch to the stomach, the guard bending over that organ and crying in pain. Karolina takes that moment then to knee him straight in the face, the muscles on her naked thighs tensing and releasing in taut lines as she sent him stomach-first to the floor in a semi-circular blow. 

 

Nico is fairly sure his jaw is broken, if the sickening snap is anything to go by. She probably shouldn’t find it as hot as she does. Specially not when Karolina smiles at her like  _ that _ , before reaching to help the shorter teen get up “Couldn’t  _ possibly  _ leave my partner hanging, right?”

 

The brunette’s eyes roll far up her skull, but it’s good natured, and she smiles at her girlfriend right after, reaching for the taller girl’s hand to be holstered up  

 

In the adjacent room, Molly punches the solid metal bars as hard as she can, her eyes glowing sparkly yellow while Old Lace follows her around happily, waiting for the girl to successfully break into the cage. She miscalculates a blow, however, and pierces straight through a large pipe, that instantly starts to violently spray clear water, hissing loudly.  

 

Molly cries in frustration before appearing at the door, furious and red-faced. 

 

“I can’t get her out!” the teenager huffs. Chase comes in from the main lobby as well, his hair messy and skin covered in a thin layer of sweat. 

 

“Have y-” Before Nico can even formulate any sort of plan, they’re all silenced. The whole building going dark for a mere half a second before every single light bulb suddenly turns red, and the walls are awash with strawberry scarlet light. With it, from outside comes blaring a high-pitched, ambulance-like alarm, so loudly it feels like it’s source could be in the room right next to them. Yet, the echo, so clearly present on the sound, pointed to that not being the case. 

 

_ “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”  _ Alex curses through the interfone, panting frantically,  _ “The guards are awake! You need to get out! NOW!”  _

 

“We don’t have Lace!” Molly protests, palms solidly planted over her ears to muffle the deafening woes. Nico lets her eyes run over to where the dinosaur now cries lowly, upset she hasn’t yet been rescued.

 

_ “Leave her, Molly!”  _ the boy yells. Nico studies every corner of the rooms, looking for something,  _ anything _ , that could free the dinosaur. 

 

“Are you crazy?! We can’t!” the older brunette zeroes in on the electronic keypad that controls the door to the cage. She takes a step forward, trying to find any sort of power source through the dark, disorienting red light. 

 

“Molly, I think we’re gonna have to.” Chase yells over the alarm, everyone else straining to listen. 

 

“No!” Nico protests, “wait, I’ve got a plan.” the girl assures them, pressing her finger into the earphone so that she can hear Alex more clearly, “Alex, where is the power source? Can you see it?” 

 

_ “Uuuuuh…” _ he mumbles half-heartedly, probably checking their stats.  _ “I see it! It’s right outside, a red doored shed! You can get there through an outside door on the west side!” _ the boy exclaims excitedly, but then a small gasp leaves his lips, almost in tandem.  _ “But… The soldiers are getting ready to go in the building, I’m not sure you can get there on time, they’ll reach you in 7.56 minutes.”  _

 

“Not all of us are going.” Nico mumbles, and then turns from where she’d been staring at the cage, to her friends, who watch her intently, specifically Karolina, who frowns curiusly at her girlfriend, “Karo and Chase go and break it, then get Old Lace and meet Molly and me outside in fifteen minutes.” 

 

“No.” Karolina shakes her head violently, blue eyes going wide, “Are you crazy? There’s a whole army outside!” she yells over the alarms that are still going. 

 

Nico merely reaches behind her shoulder, clutching the staff that promptly reaches it’s full length, once freed from it’s confines, “Kid-Hulk and I can distract them, at least long enough that you guys can get out with Lace! You’ll meet us outside, by the gates!”

 

“Nico, what if something goes wrong? You can’t go!” The blonde pleads, her gaze seeming even more desperate under the red lights. She’d just recently lost Nico and the thought of it happening again made Karolina sick to her stomach.

 

_ “Five minutes, people!”  _ Alex reminds them,  _ “You better go now!”  _

 

With the warning, Nico takes a couple steps towards the blonde, surprising her with a solid, lingering kiss to the lips. It barely lasts a second but it’s enough for Karolina to claw onto her wrist, closing her own fingers around it. Once the smaller teen separates them, the blonde thinks for a second that her eyes are red. It must be the lights though, with how everything around them is tinted. 

 

“It seems you might have forgot.” the brunette whispers, and it’s almost a sign in on itself the fact that Karolina can hear it, “We’ll always find our way back to each other.” she assures the taller girl, letting a thumb caress the girl’s fingers gingerly, “Alright?”

 

She asks, and steps away ever-so-slightly, pulling on their joined limbs. Karolina nods wetly, “Alright.” 

 

Then, Nico and Molly separate themselves, and the last Karolina sees of her girlfriend is a pair of black braids, swindling in the wind as she runs across the lobby, and straight through the front door.  


	12. old lace for all, and all for old lace pt.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting spicyyy....

As they walk through the doors, Nico can see the small army, a large group of armed men, crossing the main alley toward them. She turns slightly and pulls on Molly’s arm. 

 

“We have to walk halfway to those jeeps.” The older girl explains, gesturing lightly to the line of parked military vehicles and crates, sitting right in the middle of their trajectory. She continues as they walk slowly towards the men, who also murmur curiously amongst themselves  “I’ll be ready to staff their guns, but it’ll only stump them for a few moments.”

 

“What do we do, then?” Molly quips. 

 

They’re twenty steps away from the jeeps. Nico lifts her staff, ready to spell anyone that might come at them. 

 

“We’re just gonna flip some stuff.” the girl explains, and Molly’s brown eyes instantly sparkle in excitement. The girl’d been dreaming of doing something like that ever since she found her powers, but never got the chance. Gert always said “ _ it’s not right to flip cars, Molly.” “Don’t even think about destroying that fuel truck, Molly.” “It could blow up and kill you, Molly _ .” She understood the worry and all, but what’s the point of having super-strength if you can’t be a little destructive? 

 

At least in that aspect, Nico was a much better older sister. 

 

“They all need to go in the middle of the road, block it as best as you can.” Nico instructs. They’re fifteen feet away now. One of the larger men, wearing clothing that was more adorned than the others - which pointed to a higher patent -, takes a step ahead of the others, carrying a large rifle. The older teen gulps, a shiver running up her spine at his heavy finger on the trigger, “Wait for my signal, then go right. Don’t start until the lights are out, we  _ need  _ to give them the best chance possible.”  

 

Ten feet. 

 

Both groups stop. 

 

Around the road and precariously parked half on the sidewalk, are all the vehicles and crates, mostly black and army green, with tall, burly tires the size of Lace’s head. Molly studies them with her eyes, calculating how many she could flip in a small period of time. 

 

The man lifts his weapon, props it on his shoulder, points it directly at Nico. 

 

She can almost smell the gunpowder.

The guy standing besides him also lifts his gun. This one directed at Molly. She stops breathing, the happy skip to her steps halting completely in fear. Nico watches her throat bob. 

 

_ “Quién eres tu?!”  _ the man inquiries. His hands are shaking and he’s frantic, breathing jerky and movements unsure. 

 

“He’s asking who we are.” Molly whispers, moving slightly to the side, which makes the man cock his weapon again, calling the girl’s attention. Everyone is silent, there are at least seventy people behind him, but Nico’s sure they’d hear if a pin fell to the floor meters away. Some stare nervously at the eerie glow that seeps away from her staff, the rest, keep their eyes almost creepily behind the two, not letting their gaze fall on them. 

 

“Tell him it’s none of his business.” 

 

Molly says something in spanish. His pale skin turns bright red and his jaw locks painfully. He takes a long breath, and then talks again,  _ “Suelta tus armas y ríndete!”  _

 

“He’s telling us to surrender.” Molly translates and her action seems to anger the man further, because he trembles harder than before, taking a step forwards with his heavy boots. The gravel rattling under him. 

 

_ “Cállate!”  _ He yells. Molly flinches, Nico’s nostrils flaring. She should probably be a bit more afraid of him, but after being yelled by older men for 80% of her life, she’s surely not going to let this dumb sargent do it, when they have no previous relation. 

 

She’d always been the one that got caned for being petulant. It surely wasn’t about to stop now.

 

“Tell him to let us pass.” Nico insists, and the curly haired girl stares back at her, dumbfounded. The goth choosing not to react, instead keeping her eyes ahead. 

 

Molly takes a deep breath, “Déjanos pasar, no somos una amenaza para ti”, she lets out, her voice trembling a little. 

 

The man then chuckles, sarcasm dripping from his tone, and turns to look over his shoulder. With one gesture from a free hand, almost in unison, every single one of the soldiers lifts their weapons, still primarily motionless, their expressions and body language remaining the same. The light that comes from the lampposts, yellow and dim, glints against the metal of polished barrels. 

 

“Nico…” Molly whines, leaning toward the smaller teen, “Do it. Now.”

 

“The lights aren’t out yet.” the older girl observes. The sargent yells something in spanish. Every one of the men getting into position to shoot. 

 

“Screw the lights, they’re gonna kill us!”

 

“If we do it too soon they won’t have time to save Lace!” Nico barely moves from her spot. 

 

The man yells something else, angry and authoritative. Molly’s entire body curls in on itself, “Nico, please, they’re gonna kill us!” 

 

“Wait! They’re gonna make it!” The soldiers have their fingers on maybe a hundred different triggers. The girl will be executed, if something doesn’t happen soon. 

 

Molly fidgets fearfully. She thinks of running, but knows her friend will probably die if she does, so she opens her mouth again, ready to ask,  _ plead  _ with the seventeen year old for any action. 

 

Just as she does, however, the lamppost right above them blinks. 

 

It cackles with the woes of a defective system, and Nico wants to cry when she sees the familiar pink glint, travelling through the wires. “ _ Yes _ , Karo.” she whispers, under her breath, letting out a huff in relief. 

 

It starts with one, then another, until all of the lights are blinking rapidly, sizzling like a pan. Some men turn away to look, others, fighting their curiosity, keep their aim on the two girls. The sargent, right ahead, turns his eyes up for a second, and Nico takes that moment, lifting her staff and pricking her finger, “Empty clip, in the sky.”

 

Almost instantly, all guns dart upwards, going against their owners, who scamper desperately to try and control them. The men’s faces contort in confusion, yelling at each other in spanish over the frantic pulsation of their electric systems being fried by Karolina. Suddenly however, the blinking stops, and every single lightbulb, even the ones inside their living quarters, explode in a million sparks,  just as, also against their wills, weapons start firing up rapidly, emptying the clips towards the empty sky. 

 

Everything is so dark, their only light, the ashy glow of the moon and yellow flashes of explosions. 

 

“Now, Molly!” Nico sends the signal. 

 

Molly runs as fast as she can to one side of the street, the other girl taking the opposite, already using the staff to suspend a few crates mid-air and violently throw them on the street, in between them and the armed people. Molly does the same, but she sets both her palms on the underside of a vehicle, flipping it over the destroyed crates with not as much as grunt. 

 

The bullets stop, and are suddenly replaced by panicked yells and commands, most of the soldiers falling to the floor in shock along with the second two crates. They look up fearfully to the objects, kept out of the ground by Nico’s purple magic.

 

The second time is harder on Nico, who whines painfully with the effort necessary to lift the items. 

 

However, she throws just as Molly goes for her second jeep, both projectiles meeting mid-air.

 

As a result, they explode violently, spilling out thick clouds of smoldering fire 

 

Everyone screams in protest. 

 

Nico tries to protect herself, cast a spell, but before she can, the girl’s violently knocked against the side of a building, her head hitting dusty concrete. 

 

***

 

When Nico’s eyes open again, her ears are ringing. 

 

It takes her a couple of blinks to focus her vision. 

 

She can hear screams, and the cackling of fire, but the dark street ahead is empty.

 

Everything is in slow motion. And dark. A lot darker than before.

 

The fire is red.

 

 She thinks maybe that’s normal, but then realizes it’s blood red, tinted from the burning cars, to the end of the flames. 

 

And the air is too. Darker, that is. Everything seeming to have adopted a color several shades darker. Like a Tim Burton movie. 

 

Nico always loved  _ The Nightmare Before Christmas,  _ but even Halloween Town seemed more cheerful than this. 

 

The sounds... Someone shouting orders in jumbled spanish.... A cacophony of panicked, loud yells. 

 

She’s standing at the end of the tunnel and the air turned into molasses, dark and thick and seeping into her brain faster than drugs, or alcohol. 

 

Turning her movements...

 

Into…

 

Lapses…

 

And she suddenly moves…

 

So slow… 

 

Her eyes fall to the building they just left…

 

Head thumping to the side…

 

She can’t remember moving…

 

Only already being…

 

Right there…

 

And how did they get here in the first place?...

 

So… 

 

So Slow…

 

She lies there motionless. It isn’t like before, when she was possessed and couldn’t move her limbs. Now she can, but she’s simply too weak, too hazy to do it. 

 

From the thin, ashy air, a figure appears. 

 

Nico’s entire body balls in without warning.  

 

Her breathing stops, eyes going wide besides herself. Now she  _ really  _ can’t move. Doesn’t think she would, if she could.  

 

This creature is solely made of shadows and red-eyed. It’s body is black. Or not even black, but  _ deep  _ darkness, like the color of the sea thousands and thousands of miles beyond beach level.

 

It’s a color Nico didn’t think could actually exist.

 

The more she looks at it, though, the more it hurts. 

 

Like a rip into reality. 

 

The mouth of a terrible, ancient evil, gaping into the cool night air.

 

A darkness that could lure her in. Take her into the brainless, empty deep.   

 

“Nico!” Molly is yelling somewhere, but it’s like an echo, far away and insignificant. 

 

The figure floats her way. It moves silently, since it doesn’t have feet. Or any humanoid features for that matter, the only person-like detail being in the shape of the eyes, and even then, nothing similar to human irises appears inside. Instead, there are just blood red, eerie orbs, swirling like magma trapped inside a volcano. 

 

Nico’s heart races inside her chest, her lungs paralysing mid inhale, painfully weezing out a whine.

 

“Nico, wake up!” Molly yells. Nico’s shaking, her hands twitching violently. Her head hurts like it did at the garage but heavier,  _ darker _ . More dangerous.  

 

It moves closer yet. Stops right by her feet. It’s  _ smell _ , of rotten blood and so particularly  _ death _ , rotten, mystical, mysterious... She suddenly feels as if it  _ is _ that place, the place in her dreams, the place where she sent those men. The place her soul goes every time the staff takes over. It’s exactly it, personified and brought to life, to torture her like it did her unconscious.  

 

“Nandeshou?” she whispers, the nihongo coming out with no preparation, “Dō shiro tte iu ndesu ka?”  _ What do you want from me? _

 

“Guys, we need help, Nico’s not fine!” Molly yells at the intercoms, trying to get the attention of any of the other teens, “Please come quick!” 

 

The thing smiles, pleased. It doesn’t have a mouth but Nico can feel it’s dizzying, maleficent presence, stirring lightly. Her stomach flips. Chaos descents on the earphone inside her head, probably from the rest of the group freaking out inside the leapfrog, but she can’t concentrate enough to decipher any real significance. 

 

_ “Watashi wa anata no tame ni kite imasu, watashi no chi”  _ it speaks, in a voice that can only be described as the grips of suffering itself, swirling around your wrists and pulling you deep.  _ I’m coming for you, my blood. _

 

He lunges then, rapidly spring into motion, and before long she’s hyperventilating, hands flying to grasp at her own pale neck, that trembles and twitches where her fingers meet skin. 

 

The borders of her vision begin to darken, a grayish, black mist taking over. 

 

_ “Ima mewosamasu-jidesu”  _ it says again.  _ Now it’s time to wake up. _

  
  


*** 

 

When she does, her eyes spring open to the chaos. There’s a giant pile of crates and vehicles cackling furiously in blazing fire, that’s now rightfully mixed of blue, yellow and orange. The overbearing smell of melting tires making her nose hurt as she heaves awake, desperately sucking in air she can’t keep in. 

 

The creature is not there anymore. 

 

Everything is moving just fine. 

 

There is no dreary darkness taking over the air around them.

 

Now, floating peacefully through the air, are small, orange embers, born from the core of the fire.  

 

When she lifts her eyes there is only Molly, waving frantically at the Leapfrog, that flies over them with the trap-door open, Karolina staring at them from above while Old Lace observes curiously from over her shoulder. “Are you alright?”

 

“Yup, just fine!” Molly yells back, then she turns to Nico, who’s now blinking rapidly to try and cast away the horrible dizziness that’s settled over her brain. “Can you walk?”

 

Nico just nods, too weak to attest but sure she can handle it. The teen casts one last look to the destruction around them, taking Molly’s strong arm to help her up. Everything that isn’t dark is ablaze. One of the rooftops has caught on fire, and several of the soldiers are passed out, some running around desperately trying to salvage the property, others, simply staring in awe at the giant spaceship hovering over the base. She hopes none of them got seriously hurt, and is happy that it looks like it. The injuries are many, but most look non life-threatening. 

 

The last place she checks is where she saw the figure, straining her neck to peek over Molly’s shoulder. The girl searches for any sign it might have actually been there, and for a second she sees them, the figure’s horrible red eyes standing out in darkness, it’s body obscured from view. The more she looks, the more it seems like a prophecy, or bad omen, like the mere existence of this creature could only mean horrible things for the future. 

 

Nico doesn’t want to look. Something inside her - probably self-preservation - keeps yelling,  _ begging _ , that she stops. As if she’s in grave danger by just looking, and deep down she knows it could take her for that reason alone, it’s got that kind of power. 

 

But she can’t stop, almost hypnotized by the pupil-less eyes. 

 

 Then, just as fast as it had appeared, with one blink, it’s gone. 

 

Her entire body shivers, the hairs that cover her arm standing straight up, right as Karolina’s strong body engulfs her in a firm hug, “Damn, Nico, you really scared me!”

 

The brunette revels on her smell, so unique and sweet, different from that horrible scent that’d gotten itself stuck inside her nostrils. When her eyes open, Old Lace is staring at her excitedly, large tail wagging behind her. Nico can’t help but smile against her girlfriend’s shoulder. 

 

“You did it.” she observes, “I knew you’d do it.”  

 

***

 

She sits by Karolina’s side all the way to Yucatan, while Molly rolls around the living room with Old Lace, both very excited to be together again. The girl had apparently ducked behind another vehicle when the first few went in flames and caught little of the explosion, which was lucky compared to Nico, but the older teen still insisted she was fine to keep travelling. Her back hurts, and there’s a significant slash to the side of her head that Karolina worries over for half an hour.

 

She’s also hazy for the first few minutes, practically unable to talk. Her whole face is asleep, and her brain, stuck on the thick darkness that took over the dark street. Molly explained what happened, while the teen lulled in and out of consciousness, and said her friend had what looked like a panic attack, while her whole body shook and eyes rolled to the back of her head.

 

If Nico’d been able to feel her tongue she’d probably have told her to shut up and not worry Karolina. The blonde, however, doesn’t really say much, which Nico is thankful for. Her girlfriend looks worried, frowning while cleaning her cut with magically soft cotton swabs. Also mostly pissed off, which Nico understands, she’d probably be upset if Karolina had nearly got herself blown up, but they’ll have to discuss later 

 

 Nico can’t remember most of it, and her wounds aren’t a lot compared to the bad taste in her mouth. Whatever was that thing, she couldn’t shake it’s presence from the air around her. It made her feel cold. Cold and heavy, as if she’d been sinking into quicksand. And no matter how much she knows the easiest explanation would probably be that she’d had a hallucination, Nico can’t shake the feeling that it was  _ real _ . Whatever it was, it was  _ there _ , at the base with them. 

 

Nonetheless, she doesn’t say anything. First because the teen was still suffering it’s effects, and then because she didn’t think they’d believe her. 

 

The girl barely even moves until they’re so far away she could no longer see the blazen military settlement from the windows. 

 

Then, shoves her head into Karolina’s sweater, and breathes the soft fabric in, willing away the horrid darkness’s overbearing smell. 

 

Her mind, however, can’t forget those words. 

 

_ That voice _ , like hot, terrible panic. 

 

_ My blood.  _

 

It whispered to the cells under her skin. 

 

_ My bloo. _

 

The scattered neurons inside her brain. 

 

_ My blood.  _

 

And it was so sure, Nico couldn’t help but also be. 

 

About that, and the fact it was coming for her. 

 

***

 

It’s close to dawn when they reach the Hernandez’ ranch. The property is square and quaint, visible from above because of it’s well delimited blue fence posts, woven in between by barbed wire. The whole space’s covered in lively trees, grass and bushes, scattered around a sizeable, red-roofed house. They park the ship over the small strip of beach, wedged onto the back of the terrain. 

 

From the trap door come out all of them but Chase and Old Lace. Chase, deciding to stay back with the dinosaur in fear Gert might not want to come if she saw him. Alex’d x-rayed the walls, determining Gert seemed to be asleep on a room on the first floor, while Dale was upstairs, the whole place entirely silent and doused in shadows. 

 

The teens pitter-patter up the wooden steps that lead to the beach, careful not to step too hard, then Nico casts a spell to unlock the door, wincing at the metallic  _ click  _ the lock makes when turning. 

 

The first room they reach is a kitchen, small and earth-toned, with darkwood cabinets and dirty plates piling over the sink. None of the teens’ parents had done the dishes in years, so it was only understandable. Molly nearly hits her knee against a slender chair, but Karolina pulls her away, shushing the girl as they walk into the living room. 

 

That room’s rustic, simple, with nothing in it but a sofa, old tv and rug, reminiscent of it previously existing merely for vacationing purposes. To the other side, the door to Gert’s bedroom. 

 

Molly steps ahead of everyone, leaning her face against the wood and searching for any sounds. Nothing comes. The room is as silent as the rest of the house. The fifteen year old turns to the others, that watch her intently, sets one finger over her lips and lets out a soft  _ shhhhh _ , before very slowly opening the door. 

 

Her hand barely seems to move, from how carefully Molly presses it to the old doorknob. 

 

It finally slips open, however, and she (still very gently) steps inside. 

 

Then, out of nowhere, a thick piece of wood swings her way, zooming through the air just inches away from the girl’s nose, who ducks last minute. 

 

“ _ Gert!”  _ Molly scream-whispers, realizing the assailant is her sister, swinging a baseball bat around wildly, with her eyes closed. 

 

The purple haired girl’s eyelids open, but it’s too late, as she’d already swung it the other way, nearly striking Nico’s already hurt head, but getting stopped half a second before by Molly, who stops it mid-air with her naked palms, throwing it back to the girl’s now empty bed.

 

The purple haired girl then almost instantly lunges forward, pulling Molly for a firm hug, “Molly! Oh my God, I thought you guys weren’t coming!” she says, leaning up to hug Karolina and then Nico, “What happened to you?! How did you come here? And Old La-”

 

“We have Old Lace.” Alex assures, “we can discuss more outside, get your stuff before Dale wakes up.” 

 

Gert nods and turns around, stuffing a pink backpack with fistfuls of clothes from random drawers with Molly’s help, as quietly as they could. Before long, the older teen swings the strap over her shoulder, and turns to the others.

 

“Ready?” Karolina asks, and Gert nods. 

 

“Yup, I just nee-” the girl stops on her tracks, her gaze zeroing in on something behind the others’ backs. 

 

“You alright?” Alex asks. 

 

Before the girl can answer, however, a low click of a trigger echoes across the thin walls and right after, Dale’s voice. 

 

“Now where could you all be going so fast?” 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo... we finally have gert, and soon will dive face-first into the actual plot. I can't believe it took me 12 chapters! But I truly believe it was necessary for plot-building and to give you guys a base before going there. I hope you had fun!
> 
> Leave a comment, come annoy me on tumblr! 
> 
> \- Clara

**Author's Note:**

> If you wanna go ask for spoilers or give some feedback, just go on my tumblr. It's dontmakemepick2 , I'd love to see ya'll there.


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